The Aim of the Conference Series

Republicanism has recently gained renewed prominence in political theory, history, and philosophy. It has become a vital language for thinking about freedom, power, and civic responsibility in an age marked by populism, the personalization of authority, rising inequality, and the crisis of democracy. At its core, republicanism is concerned with public affairs (res publica), sovereignty, and government by law as protection against arbitrary power and as a safeguard of liberty. The delicate balance between the exercise of power and authority and the preservation of liberty has long preoccupied republican thinkers.

Rooted in Roman political thought and the experience of the polis in classical Greece, yet continuously reinterpreted, republican traditions have taken diverse institutional forms, from civic humanist ideals of virtue to mixed constitutions combining participation, hierarchy, and law. Many republics, from Florence to Venice, embodied oligarchic or aristocratic features while still grounding legitimacy in law and the common good. Over time, republican ideals and practices have travelled, expanded, and taken root across different parts of the world, shaping debates about liberty, legitimacy, and collective self-government from the Mediterranean to Eurasia, South and East Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Despite being a historical idea, partly rooted in dominating practices such as slavery, republicanism remains a vital tool for confronting the challenges of the present, including democratic erosion, the concentration of power, ecological crisis, and the search for civic solidarity. It offers a conceptual vocabulary for rethinking modern institutions through participatory governance, eco-democracy, the defense of the commons and public space, and collective rights and responsibilities.

The conference aims to advance a broader and comparative understanding of republicanism, its categories and approaches (even when they are not explicitly framed within a republican theory) by examining how different societies have conceptualized and practiced them, and by exploring the dynamic relationship between power, authority, legitimacy, and liberty at the heart of republican political thought. Bringing together multiple disciplines and historical experiences, it seeks to illuminate how the idea of the republican ideas, past and present, continues to shape enduring struggles over law, justice, and the common good.

Scholars from all disciplines, from the Venice International University consortium and beyond, are invited to join in. The aim is to consolidate a network of people interested in the project. The objective is to have biennial conferences in the field and convert this event into a permanent workshop. Given our commitment to gender, racial, ethnic, and territorial inclusion, we especially welcome submission from women and non-binary scholars as well as from underrepresented minority groups and academics from the Global South.

A Worldwide and Multidisciplinary Perspective

The main groups of themes we wish to cover:

1) Political theory and philosophy of Republicanism. This is an area of contributions which is most conceptual. It has to do with meta-historical considerations. Its main concern would be to define what the republican tradition is all about, and what are the republican aims and forms of life. If a coherent theory of republicanism is possible, then how does it differentiate itself from its rivals (including populism and liberalism)? Are there different regional or national models of the classical republican tradition? This section could include also issues like Feminism and Republicanism, and a discussion of Republican theory of private property/ownership and the commons.

2) The historical manifestations of Republicanism in ideas, movements, regimes, urban spaces, and the arts. This includes all the approaches which involve rigorous historicization and historical circumscribing: from Greek and Roman Republicanism to the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages and the Venetian, Florentine and Genoese polities and then on to the Dutch and English revolutions; free cities in medieval and early modern Europe – from the Hansa experience to Ragusa; from the American founding fathers and the generation before them to the French revolution and the French and Italian 19th century versions of Republicanism. The US context could be also crucial to understand how republicanism transformed itself into populism. Art forms of Republicanism fall in this area too; including Republican rituals in specific time and place; and manifestations of Republicanism in literature too. A major target is to consider also the manifestation of Republican forms and values in Asia and other parts of the world in specific periods.

3) The study of contemporary political and legal practices which are explicitly or implicitly republican and their future prospects. This area could include both institutional and social practices from below. It could include the study of EU as manifestation of a republic in making. It could involve the study of eco-republicanism, gender issues, participatory budgeting, citizens assemblies, participatory planning, welfare and workplaces, forms of co-management, urban and other commons, movements for the defense of public water, of internet accessibility, of a public space, practices in contemporary arts.

VIU will hold the fourth edition of the Venice Multidisciplinary World Conference on Republics and Republicanism on May 24-26, 2024. This three-day edition will include research papers and multidisciplinary roundtables.

Download the conference programme

The conference will primarily reflect on armed conflicts in the republican tradition, with a special attention to four main areas:

- War and the Republic: from the role of war in providing conditions for class struggle in ancient republics, to the art of war of the Renaissance and the role of the military in the formation, dissolution, and maintenance of ancient, modern, and contemporary republics. Of special interest is the political economy of wars and its impact on republican orders.

- Republican Rebellion and the State: from modern revolutions invoking republican principles and rhetoric, to contemporary forms of republican-inspired movements and their relation to the State. Of special interest are the memorialization of republican leaders and events as well as the dismantling of imperial and oligarchic symbols.

- Empires and Republics: from wars between empires and republics and the different principles and objectives that emerge in conflict, to the international architecture necessary to foster republican government. Of special interest are historical accounts of clashes between empires and republics and their depiction in works of fiction and science fiction, as well as theoretical engagements with Pettit’s ‘republican law of peoples.’

- War and Peace: challenges to democratic republics coming from the negative effects of war, from debt and the increasing power of the financial-military complex to forced migration, the rise of nationalism, the restriction of rights, and environmental destruction. Of special interest are theories of republican transitional justice, historical accounts of forced migration into ancient and modern republics, and republican analyses of contemporary challenges within the EU and other regional and/or national systems.

Research papers might also reflect the main themes of the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, curated by Adriano Pedrosa: Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.

KEYNOTES

Richard Whatmore, Director Institute of Intellectual History, University of St. Andrews
Sophie Wahnich, CNRS-PACTE, Laboratoire des Sciences Sociales, Grenoble Alpes

HOW TO APPLY

Any scholar interested in participating in the Conference is invited to send a paper title with an abstract of approximately 250 words plus their CV and full contact address (including email) to luca.pes@univiu.org and in CC silvia.casalini@univiu.org. 

Deadline: December 30, 2023.

Notifications of paper acceptance/rejection will be sent by January 21, 2024.
 
Admitted fellows and auditors need to register online and pay the conference fee by February 29, 2024.

Conference fee: 50 Euro per person
Conference fee+Biennale ticket: 70 Euro per person
Please note that the Biennale ticket is non-refundable and non-transferable. 

ACCOMODATION

It is possible to book a room in the island where Venice International University and the conference are based.
If you wish to book a room, please fill out this form and send it to reception@servizimetropolitani.ve.it. 

The availability of rooms is limited. 
The deadline to book your accommodation on the island is February 29, 2024. 

THE AIM OF THE CONFERENCE SERIES

The aim is to meet every two years to discuss Republicanism in a broad, multidisciplinary and worldwide perspective.

During recent decades, Republicanism has become a central concern in political theory and history. This body of thought emerged as the main alternative to Liberalism, when Marxism lost this role after the fall of the Berlin Wall. There is a renewed interest today, while searching for solutions to mounting populism and personalization of power; the issue of inequality and the crisis of democracies. Republicanism - as a study of classical Athens and Rome and then Renaissance Florence, Venice and other self-governing units - has been branded as ‘a shared European heritage'. Its distinguishing feature has been to focus on the diverse political mechanisms to avert tyranny, on balancing power and attaining mixed government, and on ensuring forms of participation in the process of law-making, protecting from constraints and conceiving liberty as non-domination. Such practices have been key for experiments in democratic rule all over the world.

The conference wants to promote further theoretical and historical reflections on such experience, broadening the focus to non-European case-studies and perspectives, to late modern and contemporary times, opening to every possible discipline. Republicanism is not a dead body confined to the studies of the past: rather it is about rediscovering the past to offer novel solutions for the problems of today. The idea, hence, is to convert it into a frame in which to discuss and clarify contemporary issues and concerns and even, if possible, into a common background theory for existing empirical political practices, including eco- democracy, participatory budgets, the defense of the commons and public space, communal practices and rights, and resistance to domination.

Scholars from all disciplines, from the Venice International University consortium and beyond, are invited to join in. The aim is to consolidate a network of people interested in the project. The objective is to have biennial conferences in the field and convert this event into a permanent workshop. Given our commitment to gender, racial, ethnic, and territorial inclusion, we especially welcome submission from women and non-binary scholars as well as from underrepresented minority groups and academics from the Global South.

A WORLDWIDE AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE

The main groups of themes we wish to cover:

1) Political theory and philosophy of Republicanism. This is an area of contributions which is most conceptual. It has to do with meta-historical considerations. Its main concern would be to define what the republican tradition is all about, and what are the republican aims and forms of life. If a coherent theory of republicanism is possible, then how does it differentiate itself from its rivals (including populism and liberalism)? Are there different regional or national models of the classical republican tradition? This section could include also issues like Feminism and Republicanism, and a discussion of Republican theory of private property/ownership and the commons.

2) The historical manifestations of Republicanism in ideas, movements, regimes, urban spaces, and the arts. This includes all the approaches which involve rigorous historicization and historical circumscribing: from Greek and Roman Republicanism to the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages and the Venetian, Florentine and Genoese polities and then on to the Dutch and English revolutions; free cities in medieval and early modern Europe – from the Hansa experience to Ragusa; from the American founding fathers and the generation before them to the French revolution and the French and Italian 19th century versions of Republicanism. The US context could be also crucial to understand how republicanism transformed itself into populism. Art forms of Republicanism fall in this area too; including Republican rituals in specific time and place; and manifestations of Republicanism in literature too. A major target is to consider also the manifestation of Republican forms and values in Asia and other parts of the world in specific periods.

3) The study of contemporary political and legal practices which are explicitly or implicitly republican and their future prospects. This area could include both institutional and social practices from below. It could include the study of EU as manifestation of a republic in making. It could involve the study of eco-republicanism, gender issues, participatory budgeting, citizens assemblies, participatory planning, welfare and workplaces, forms of co-management, urban and other commons, movements for the defense of public water, of internet accessibility, of a public space, practices in contemporary arts.

More on the theme of the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition: Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.

For the program of the 2023 edition, please see here. 
For the program of the 2021 edition, which took place virtually, please click here.
For the initial 2019 edition program and photo gallery please see here, and on Flickr.

Selected papers of the first edition were published in: Towards World Multidisciplinary Studies of Republics and Republicanism, Ian Hampsher-Monk and Luca Pes (ed.), “History of Political Thought”, special issue, Volume 43, Number 5, December 2022, 149 pages

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Sara De Vido (Ca' Foscari University of Venice), Oleg Kharkhordin (European University at St. Petersburg), Luca Pes (Venice International University), Camila Vergara (University of Essex), Giovanni Zanalda (Duke University)

ADVISORY BOARD

Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan (Sorbonne Université, Paris), Cécile Laborde (Oxford University), John Jeffries Martin (Duke University), Quentin Skinner (Queen Mary University of London), Ananya Vajpeyi (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi)

For any information about the conference please contact luca.pes@univiu.org
For information about logistics please contact silvia.casalini@univiu.org 

VIU will hold the fifth edition of the Venice Multidisciplinary World Conference on Republics and Republicanism on June 26-28, 2026. This three-day edition will include research papers and multidisciplinary roundtables.

The conference will primarily reflect on Power, Freedom and Oligarchy from the point of view of political theory and philosophy, and law; of political, cultural, economic and social history; and of practices in the contemporary world.

Papers might also reflect the main themes of the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, curated by Koyo Kouoh : In Minor Keys.
Papers on other themes will also be considered.

Keynotes

Philip Pettit, Professor of Philosophy, Princeton and ANU
Camila Vergara, Senior Lecturer, University of Essex

Download the Conference Program

Abstracts

The Aim of the Conference Series

Republicanism has recently gained renewed prominence in political theory, history, and philosophy. It has become a vital language for thinking about freedom, power, and civic responsibility in an age marked by populism, the personalization of authority, rising inequality, and the crisis of democracy. At its core, republicanism is concerned with public affairs (res publica), sovereignty, and government by law as protection against arbitrary power and as a safeguard of liberty. The delicate balance between the exercise of power and authority and the preservation of liberty has long preoccupied republican thinkers.

Rooted in Roman political thought and the experience of the polis in classical Greece, yet continuously reinterpreted, republican traditions have taken diverse institutional forms, from civic humanist ideals of virtue to mixed constitutions combining participation, hierarchy, and law. Many republics, from Florence to Venice, embodied oligarchic or aristocratic features while still grounding legitimacy in law and the common good. Over time, republican ideals and practices have travelled, expanded, and taken root across different parts of the world, shaping debates about liberty, legitimacy, and collective self-government from the Mediterranean to Eurasia, South and East Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Despite being a historical idea, partly rooted in dominating practices such as slavery, republicanism remains a vital tool for confronting the challenges of the present, including democratic erosion, the concentration of power, ecological crisis, and the search for civic solidarity. It offers a conceptual vocabulary for rethinking modern institutions through participatory governance, eco-democracy, the defense of the commons and public space, and collective rights and responsibilities.

The conference aims to advance a broader and comparative understanding of republicanism, its categories and approaches (even when they are not explicitly framed within a republican theory) by examining how different societies have conceptualized and practiced them, and by exploring the dynamic relationship between power, authority, legitimacy, and liberty at the heart of republican political thought. Bringing together multiple disciplines and historical experiences, it seeks to illuminate how the idea of the republican ideas, past and present, continues to shape enduring struggles over law, justice, and the common good.

Scholars from all disciplines, from the Venice International University consortium and beyond, are invited to join in. The aim is to consolidate a network of people interested in the project. The objective is to have biennial conferences in the field and convert this event into a permanent workshop. Given our commitment to gender, racial, ethnic, and territorial inclusion, we especially welcome submission from women and non-binary scholars as well as from underrepresented minority groups and academics from the Global South.

A Worldwide and Multidisciplinary Perspective

The main groups of themes we wish to cover:

1) Political theory and philosophy of Republicanism. This is an area of contributions which is most conceptual. It has to do with meta-historical considerations. Its main concern would be to define what the republican tradition is all about, and what are the republican aims and forms of life. If a coherent theory of republicanism is possible, then how does it differentiate itself from its rivals (including populism and liberalism)? Are there different regional or national models of the classical republican tradition? This section could include also issues like Feminism and Republicanism, and a discussion of Republican theory of private property/ownership and the commons.

2) The historical manifestations of Republicanism in ideas, movements, regimes, urban spaces, and the arts. This includes all the approaches which involve rigorous historicization and historical circumscribing: from Greek and Roman Republicanism to the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages and the Venetian, Florentine and Genoese polities and then on to the Dutch and English revolutions; free cities in medieval and early modern Europe – from the Hansa experience to Ragusa; from the American founding fathers and the generation before them to the French revolution and the French and Italian 19th century versions of Republicanism. The US context could be also crucial to understand how republicanism transformed itself into populism. Art forms of Republicanism fall in this area too; including Republican rituals in specific time and place; and manifestations of Republicanism in literature too. A major target is to consider also the manifestation of Republican forms and values in Asia and other parts of the world in specific periods.

3) The study of contemporary political and legal practices which are explicitly or implicitly republican and their future prospects. This area could include both institutional and social practices from below. It could include the study of EU as manifestation of a republic in making. It could involve the study of eco-republicanism, gender issues, participatory budgeting, citizens assemblies, participatory planning, welfare and workplaces, forms of co-management, urban and other commons, movements for the defense of public water, of internet accessibility, of a public space, practices in contemporary arts.

Organizing Committee

Dario Castiglione (University of Exeter), Sara De Vido (Ca' Foscari University of Venice), Oleg Kharkhordin (European University at St. Petersburg), Luca Pes (Venice International University), Banu Turnaoğlu (Sabanci University / Cambridge University)

Advisory Board

Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan (Sorbonne Université, Paris), Cécile Laborde (Oxford University), John Jeffries Martin (Duke University), Quentin Skinner (Queen Mary University of London), Ananya Vajpeyi (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi), Camila Vergara (University of Essex), Sabrina Zucca-Soest (Helmut Schmidt Universität, Hamburg)

Contacts

For any information about the conference please contact luca.pes@univiu.org
For information about logistics please contact silvia.casalini@univiu.org  

How to Apply

Any scholar interested in participating in the Conference is invited to send a paper title with an abstract of approximately 250 words plus their CV and full contact address (including email) to luca.pes@univiu.org and in CC silvia.casalini@univiu.org.

New extended deadline: January 16, 2026.
Notifications of paper acceptance/rejection will be sent by February 3, 2026.

Admitted fellows and auditors need to register online and pay the conference fee by February 28, 2026.
If your paper has been accepted, click here to register. 

Conference fee: 70 Euro per person
Conference fee + Biennale ticket: 90 Euro per person
Please note that the Biennale ticket is non-refundable and non-transferable.

Accommodation

It is possible to book a room in the island where Venice International University and the conference are based.
Click here to download the form. 

The deadline to book your accommodation on the island is February 28, 2026.

Links

More on the theme of the 2026 Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition: In Minor Keys (excerpt from the declaration of intent by the curator: “The minor keys refuse orchestral bombast and goose-step military marches and come alive in the quiet tones, the lower frequencies, the hums, the consolations of poetry, all portals of improvisation to the elsewhere and the otherwise. The minor keys ask for listening that calls on the emotions and sustains them in return. / The minor keys are also the small islands, worlds amid oceans with distinct and endlessly rich ecosystems, social lives that are articulated, for better and worse, within much larger political forms and ecological stakes. Here, the evocation of the key and the island extends to an archipelago of oases: gardens, courtyards, compounds, lofts, dance floors — the other worlds that artists make, the intimate and convivial universes that refresh and sustain even in terrible times; indeed, especially in terrible times”).

2024 edition
2023 edition
2021 edition
2019 edition (first), and Photo Gallery on Flickr.

Selected papers of the first edition were published in:
Towards World Multidisciplinary Studies of Republics and Republicanism, Ian Hampsher-Monk and Luca Pes (ed.), “History of Political Thought”, special issue, Volume 43, Number 5, December 2022, 149 pages

• 1-3 February 2022
  4th edition of IMUN Venezia
  Organized by United Network Europa
  
  
• 23-26 March 2022
  3rd Meeting on Digital Pathology on the Border to Molecular Imaging
  Organized by Goethe-University Frankfurt
  
  
• 7-8 April 2022
  Integrating Refugees in Society and Labour - Progetto SiforRef
  Organized by Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
  
  
• 12-15 April 2022
  Humane AI Consortium meeting
  Organized by DFKI GmbH Embedded Intelligence
  
  
• 19-23 April 2022
  Computational Systems
  Organized by LMU Munich
  
  
• 24-29 April 2022
  SFB/TRR 127
  Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 127 of the German Research Society (DFG)
  Biology of Xenogeneic Cell, Tissue, and Organ Transplantation - from Bench to Bedside
  Organized by LMU Munich
  
  
• 16-19 May 2022
  GEOHAB: Marine Geological and Biological Mapping
  Organized by CNR
  
  
• 18-22 May 2022
  Medical Ethics
  Organized by LMU Munich
  
  
• 21-28 May 2022
  Italian Discoveries
  Organized by Purdue University
  
  
• 27-28 May 2022
  Third Venice World Multidisciplinary Conference on Republics and Republicanism
  Organized by VIU, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, EUSP
  
  
• 2-4 June 2022
  IUAV Course
  Organized by Università IUAV di Venezia
  
  
• 9-11 June 2022
  Defining the Human in Environmental Humanities  
  Organized by Boston College, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, LMU Munich, VIU 
  
  
• 9-12 June 2022
  Criminal Law
  Organized by LMU Munich
  
  
• 18-20 June 2022
  Network of Greek Archaic Songs
  Organized by Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
  
  
• 20-23 June 2022
  ACM Confence on Creativity and Cognition
  Organized by Association for Computing Machinery
  
  
• 26 June - 1 July 2022
  CESifo Venice Summer Institute
  Organized by CESifo
  
  
• 3-7 July 2022
  Seminar on Cognitive Neuroscience
  Organized by Pompeu Fabra University
  
  
• 3-9 July 2022
  7th Venice International School on Lasers in Material Science
  Organized by Politecnico di Milano 

• 7-17 July 2022
  Summer School on Oriental Languages
  Organized by UNIL 
  
  
• 12-15 July 2022
  Data Research Camp
  Organized by Università degli Studi di Padova
  
  
• 1-3 August 2022
  IRTG 1064 Chromatin Dynamics
  Organized by LMU Munich

• 4-6 August 2022
  IRTG 1054 Cell Fate Decisions
  Organized by LMU Munich

• 20-24 September 2022
  CeNS/MCQST Workshop
  Bridging the Gap: Nano Meets Quantum
  Organized by LMU Munich

• 24-27 September 2022
  Palladio Program
  Organized by 2College

• 28-30 September 2022
  International Conference on Numerical Methods in Multiphase Flows – 4
  Organized by Università degli Studi di Padova

• 4-7 October 2022
  TUM E-Conversion
  Organized by TUM 

• 10-12 October 2022
  FOR 2599 Symposium
  Tissue Type 2 Immunity: Mechanism of Induction and Regulation
  Organized by TU Dresden 

• 10-14 October 2022
  Media Informatics
  Organized by LMU Munich

• 13-16 October 2022
  Innovation Management
  Organized by LMU Munich

• 20-21 October 2022
  University for SDGs meeting
  Organized by University for SDGs

• 21-23 October 2022
  Venice Judges Forum
  Organized by EPO
  
  
• 14-17 November 2022
  Rational Choice Sociology
  Organized by LMU Munich
  
  
• 18-20 November 2022
  CEST Symposium 2022
  Limits of Autocratisation: Actor and Institutions of Democratic Resilience
  Organized by Università Ca' Foscari Venezia and the Consortium for European Symposia on Turkey (CEST)