IN SHORT: Franciscu Sedda is Full Professor at the University of Cagliari, where he teaches Semiotics of Languages and Communication, Philosophy of Languages, Cultural Semiotics. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard University and the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. He held conferences in 18 Countries. His research focuses on culture, history, politics, translation, unpredictability, populism, the glocal, islands, and Sardinia. His most recent monograph is "L’imprevedibile accade. Vivere e sopravvivere nel XXI secolo" (Milan, Bompiani, 2025).

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Franciscu Sedda (PhD, Sapienza University of Rome) is Full Professor of Semiotics at the University of Cagliari, where he teaches "Semiotics of Languages and Communication", "Philosophy of Languages", and "Cultural Semiotics". He has been Visiting Professor at Harvard University and at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. He has delivered lectures in 18 countries and published around 200 works, including books, edited volumes, essays, and internationally recognized articles.

Among the many strands of his research are general semiotic theory, cultural translation, unpredictability as a factor of social dynamism, digital populism, globalization/glocalization processes, the lived experience of global metropolises, island cultures, and—last but not least—the history of Sardinian consciousness, with particular attention to its symbols.

On this latter topic, see among others the books Tradurre la tradizione. Sardegna: su ballu, i corpi, la cultura [Translating Tradition. Sardinia: Dance, Bodies, Culture] (Rome 2003; new ed. Milan 2019; based on the doctoral dissertation that received the “Cavicchioli Prize” in 2001, chaired by Umberto Eco), La vera storia della bandiera dei sardi [The True History of the Sardinian Flag] (Cagliari, 2007), Sanluri 1409. La battaglia per la libertà della Sardegna [Sanluri 1409. The Battle for the Freedom of Sardinia] (Cagliari, 2019, ed.), Su porceddu. Storia di un piatto, racconto di un popolo [Su Porceddu. The History of a Dish, the Story of a People] (Cagliari, 2020, winner of the Franco Putzolu Prize), and Il sogno del falco. Il Codice nascosto nell'opera di Sergio Atzeni [The Falcon’s Dream. The Hidden Code in the Work of Sergio Atzeni] (Cagliari, 2020).

Among his more general works are the monographs Imperfette traduzioni. Semiopolitica delle culture [Imperfect Translations. The Semiopolitics of Cultures] (Rome, 2012) and L’imprevedibile accade. Vivere e sopravvivere nel XXI secolo [The Unpredictable Happens. Living and Surviving in the 21st Century] (Milan, 2025). Among his edited volumes: Isole. Un arcipelago semiotico [Islands. A Semiotic Archipelago] (Milan, 2019), Semiotics of Conflict (with D. Monticelli and M. Maran, Tallinn, 2023), and Simboli d'oggi. Critica dell'inflazione semiotica [Today’s Symbols. A Critique of Semiotic Inflation] (with D. Mangano, Milan, 2024).

He is among the leading international experts in the semiotics of culture and in the work of Juri Lotman, the founder of the discipline, whose writings he has edited in several Italian editions. See, for example, Tesi per una semiotica delle culture [Theses for a Semiotics of Culture] (Rome, 2006), Retorica [Rhetoric] (Rome, 2021), and most recently the classic La semiosfera. L'asimmetria e il dialogo nelle strutture pensanti [The Semiosphere. Asymmetry and Dialogue in Thinking Structures] (with S. Salvestroni, Milan, 2022).

He has edited special issues for leading international and Italian journals, including Social Semiotics, De Signis, Estudos Semióticos, Glocalism, Lexia, RIFL, and E/C.

Among his academic roles, he has served as Vice President of the Italian Association for Semiotic Studies and as Secretary General of the Italian Society for the Philosophy of Language. Among his many activities, he has coordinated the EDUC project “Reprogramming Culture,” carried out in partnership with the University of Potsdam (Prof. Eva Kimminich), as well as the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme “Language, Culture, and Media. New Semiotic Approaches to the Study of Communication,” a multilateral agreement among the Universities of Cagliari, UCC Cork, Potsdam, and Liège, with international support from colleagues at the Universities of Chicago, Yale, Harvard, and Mackenzie São Paulo.

He is a member of the Academic Board of the PhD Programme in History, Cultural Heritage and International Relations at the University of Cagliari. He previously served on the Academic Board of the PhD Programme in History and Philosophical and Social Sciences at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. He has also served on PhD examination committees at the following universities: Universidad de Granada, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Université de Limoges, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, University of Bologna, the State University of New York, and Universidad La Laguna Tenerife.

He has served on the staff of the Presidency of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia as an expert on matters concerning self-government, the Sardinian language, and international relations. He is alternate member for the President of the Autonomous Region in the Islands Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), and representative of the Region of Sardinia on the Steering and Supervisory Committee of the Convention between the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic and RAI – Italian Radio Television concerning programming in the Sardinian language.

For more details see the CV below.