Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (Italy) is inviting scholars to submit 25-minutes papers for a one-day international workshop titled “Machiavelli, Islam and the East”, which will take place on 6 May 2013.
While Niccolò Machiavelli is universally recognized as one of the founders of the Western political thinking, the aim of the international workshop, organized by the research project “Beyond the Holy War” in the year of the fifth centenary of the Prince, is to explore the less known connections among Machiavelli’s work – written in a period of successful Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean region -, the Muslim world, and the East. The languages of the workshop are English and Italian.
The organizers particularly invite contributions related to one or more of the following areas:
1. Machiavelli’s vision about political, administrative, military, and religious aspects of the Muslim world and the East, including its origin and reference, as well as similar contemporary examples, not only from the European context;
2. The reception and re-use of Machiavellian themes by European authors, who formulated opinions and images about Islam and the East, from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment;
3. A comparative study of the recovery of Machiavelli in relation with Islam and the East on the one hand, and the Americas in the Age of Exploration on the other hand;
4. The possible circulation of Machiavelli’s writings in North Africa, Middle East and Asia in the early modern period, both among local learned men and travelers.
Please send your proposals, 250 words maximum, and a brief CV with your contact information to Giuseppe Marcocci (g.marcocci[AT]sns.it).
The deadline for proposals is 20 February 2013. Responses will be sent by e-mail within 28 February 2013.
While we are not able to offer support to cover travel expenses, the Scuola Normale will provide accommodation for the workshop and will cover all meals.