Republicanism: city, regional and comparative perspectives

Conference venue: St Petersburg (Russia)
Period: Dec. 8-9, 2012
Deadline for submitting abstracts: Jun. 1, 2012
Deadline for submitting full papers: Nov. 15, 2012

The international conference "Republicanism: city, regional and comparative perspectives" is organized by the European University at St Petersburg and its research center Res Publica.
The conference will be a major academic event for republican studies in Russia and a meeting point with the leading European scholars in this field. Republicanism has become one of the central concerns in political theory and history in recent years. Republicanism was also the topic of many seminars that the European University at St Petersburg (EUSPB) hosted in the past. This time the conference focuses on specific historical cases of republican institutions. The main emphasis of the conference is made on the studies of medieval, early-modern and modern republics in Europe and North-Western Russian regions.
The conference will examine the institutional structures of city-republics in comparative perspective as well as dynamics of relations between these politically and economically alike entities. The relational and comparative perspective of the conference presentations will identify the transfers of knowledge and practices between city-republics and other regional powers, their shared heritage and diverging cultural and national trajectories. The conference will create a new discussion forum by bringing together scholars from different disciplinary and methodological backgrounds, including diverse strands of history, conceptual history and political theory.

The conference participants will explore a variety of topics related to the functioning of economic, legal and political institutions devised to sustain non-authoritarian regimes. These will include studies of material artifacts and official documentation as well as studies of republican political thought reflecting on the internal constitution of republics and the differences with the ‘despotic’ governments. The conference will innovate by stressing a comparative approach to the studies of republics and unions of republics (e.g. the Hanseatic towns). It will provide an opportunity to initiate systematic comparison of Western and Eastern European republics at conceptual and institutional level.

To apply for the conference please send your paper proposal to aartiushina@eu.spb.ru by June 1, 2012. Selected participants should send their papers to the organizers by November 15, 2012.

e-mail: aartiushina@eu.spb.ru