Name: Alessio
Surname: Postiglione
Course: Political Marketing
BIO: Spokesperson to politicians and institutions on a national and international level such as Italian Under Secretary of State, President of the European Parliament, President of the Socialist & Democrats at the European Parliament, Italian Presidency of the Council of the Ministers. Currently spokesperson at the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage. Former Research Assistant at the European University Institute, Professor for LUISS university, Link Campus University, Università Internazionale di Roma, SIOI. Journalist for la Repubblica, The Huffington Post, Euractiv, L’Espresso, Il Mattino. Last book published “Popolo e populismo” (Cairo/RCS, 2019).
When did you find out you that you wanted to be a teacher? When I understood that knowledge means nothing without sharing. While teaching you can improve yourself, acquire new skills and refine the ones that you already have.
What teaching strategies or techniques do you usually use? I like to listen my students without any type of bias, being sympathetic with all of them and establish with them a relationship based on trust and confidence. Thinking out of the box is the main skill that I usually try to teach to students.
What are the 3 fundamental competences that a worker needs to have in order to succeed in his/her future career? Networking skills, hardworking and listening competences.
What suggestion would you like to give to your students about how to get the most out of their educational experience? “Who doesn’t expect the unexpected won’t find the truth.” Cit. Eraclitus.
Always question yourself!
According to you, what are the 3 main characteristics that a successful manager should have? Being a leader means being a team builder. Being authoritative without being authoritarian.
Do you have a mentor? If yes, who? More than a mentor, I have a lot of authors whose works had an important impact on me. Such as: Foucault, Adorno and Horkheimer, Habermas, Harold Lasswell, Pierre Bourdieu, Karl Polanyi, Machiavelli, the Greek School from Plato to Aristotle, Hobbes, Karl Marx, Pareto. I tend to rely on these Classics more than on contemporary experts of Political Marketing and communication. Political Marketing and Communication are social sciences’ branches, that is to say are part of a broader universe: the universe of philosophy and sociology.
The most important lesson that you learned during your career path. The boundaries between private and public sphere are blurred. Especially in politics what you do in your private life matters.
How would you have your students find out their talent? I usually make them ask themselves what do they really want to be.
What would you like to change about yourself? I am working on avoiding to reverse the stress on my personal life.
What are you doing to change the world? Good karma and good deeds. Be positive and socially committed. Helping the others.
Top 3 cities to visit Rome, Istanbul, considered to be the second Rome, a city that I love.
Gent, in the Flanders, a beautiful medieval city, cradle of the Flemish Renaissance.
What do you like best of Rome? La grande bellezza!
3 books to read… Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison, by Michel Foucault, dialektik der Aufklärung by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, La distinction. Critique sociale du Jugement by Pierre Bourdieu.
What is your favourite Italian food? Pizza! The Neapolitan one, of course!
What are your interests and hobbies? Playing guitar and travelling
What are your weaknesses? Too many to name them!
The craziest thing you have ever done…Sleeping in the open air in the Wadi Rum desert in Giordania.
The happiest day of your life…When my child was born!
What makes you feel angry? Unfairness.
What embarrasses you? fremdschämen. Do you know what it is?
Define Happiness! Too complicated. I’d rather say it is something related to being in peace with the universe, a sort of Zen concept.
