25/02/2025
Dear colleagues and friends,
We are delighted to invite you to our next Italian Research Seminar, the last of this term, featuring Dr David Ragazzoni, who will present a paper entitled ‘At the Dawn of Political Conflictualism: Machiavelli and Savonarola on Partisanship’.
Date: Monday, 3 March 2025
Time: 17:15
Location: Main Hall, Taylor Institution, St Giles, Oxford
The event will also be streamed on Teams, and you can access it here: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NWY5MTMwMDUtYWNiMy00Zjk2LTg1YjAtN2Q2NmExY2Y2ZWUx%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22b4849fdf-756d-4795-a724-3872efb8254d%22%7d (Meeting ID: 314 402 352 68, Passcode: g7Rs9qu7).
Abstract:
Machiavelli was among the first thinkers to acknowledge both the constructive and the destructive sides of political conflict. My presentation examines how he pioneered a new language of partisan politics, how he came to do so,and why his ideas offer important insights for our present. First, it shows that Machiavelli carved out a distinctive space for conflict in the life of republics to escape both the longstanding equation between internal adversaries and public enemies, and the false dichotomy between civil concord and civil war. Second, and relatedly, it reclaims the Florentine sermons of Savonarola as the underexplored source of Machiavelli’s revolution in the language and theory of partisanship.
Bio-bibliographical profile:
An alumnus of Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Dr David Ragazzoni completed his PhD in Political Theory at Columbia University, where he was an Early Career Lecturer in Political Science and later a Core Lecturer in Contemporary Civilization. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at NYU Law School and will be a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Toronto starting next Fall. His wide-ranging interests encompass Italian political thought, particularly debates on parties, leaders, democracy, and constitutionalism across the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the 19th-20th centuries.
Please contact our committee ([email protected]) or Nicola Gardini ([email protected]) if you have any questions about this seminar.
We look forward to seeing you next week!
With warm regards,
The Italian Research Seminars Committee
