The Transcultura International Institute is an international network of universities that was created as an association in 1988 by Alain le Pichon, Umberto Eco, and a group of Chinese and African researchers on the occasion of the 9th centenary of Bologna University.
Its objective is to analyse the key questions arising from the encounter and confrontation between our cultures and non-European cultures. The initiative for this was Franco-German, forming an alliance between Umberto Eco and the Institute of Higher Education at Bologna University, Saarland, La Coruna, Lyon 2 and other European universities – together with the Lycée Louis Le Grand, in Paris,(for students following preparatory courses for the Grandes Ecoles) seat of the Institute.
The network of reciprocal observation between European and non-European cultures that has been set up by Transcultura makes it possible to answer the growing demand for reciprocal knowledge between cultures, one of the major pivots of international cultural action which our two countries wish to promote in the European Union’s relations with the major areas of non-European culture. The network is organised around three main pivots:
Euro-Asian:
China: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing University, Chinese Normal University
India: IIT Bombay, Nehru University in Delhi
Iran: Teheran University
Euro-Mediterranean:
Algeria: Alger’s University
Morocco: Rabat University
Euro-African:
Institute of Human Sciences in Bamako, Mali