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

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, 2025.
Notifications of paper acceptance/rejection will be sent by January 21, 2026.

Admitted fellows and auditors need to register online and pay the conference fee by February 28, 2026.
The registration form will be available starting January 21, 2026.

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.
The form to request accommodation on campus will be available starting January 21, 2026.

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

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.

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

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