RETHINKING DEMOCRACY BEYOND ITS BORDERS
A Conference with Seyla Benhabib
(Yale University and Columbia University)
8–9 June 2026 |
h. 10:00 – 17:30
Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo, 20126 Milano
Building U7 – 3rd Floor · Room Pagani
Link: https://unimib.webex.com/meet/marina.calloni
PRIN 2022 · D.E.W.E.Y. – Democracy, Sustainability and Wellbeing in Times of Emergency In collaboration with ResetDOC With the support of Società Italiana di Teoria Critica
Free admission until all seats are taken.
Programme — Monday 8 June 2026
10:00–10:30 Registration
10:30–11:00 Introductory Remarks Ivana Fellini (University of Milan-Bicocca) Marina Calloni (University of Milan-Bicocca)
11:00–11:45 Keynote Lecture — Universalism and International Law in a Time of Rupture Seyla Benhabib (Yale University / Columbia University)
11:45–12:30 Discussion
12:30–14:30 Lunch Break
14:30–16:00 Panel I — Critical Perspectives on Seyla Benhabib’s Political Thought Chair: Marina Calloni (University of Milan-Bicocca) Giorgio Fazio (Sapienza University of Rome) Valentina Gentile (LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome) Stefano Petrucciani (Sapienza University of Rome) Giorgia Serughetti (University of Milan-Bicocca) Angela Taraborrelli (University of Cagliari)
16:00–16:15 Coffee Break
16:15–16:45 Seyla Benhabib’s Response
16:45–17:30 General Discussion
17:30 Concluding Remarks
Programme — Tuesday 9 June 2026
10:00–11:30 Round Table — The Claims of Others Today: Democracy in a Global Age Chair: Giancarlo Bosetti (ResetDOC) Alessandro Ferrara (University of Rome Tor Vergata) Chiara Galbersanini (University of Milan) Damiano Palano (Catholic University, Milan) Debora Spini (Syracuse University of Florence) Alessandro Volpe (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University)
11:30–11:45 Coffee Break
11:45–12:15 Seyla Benhabib’s Response
12:15–13:00 General Discussion
13:00–14:30 Lunch Break
14:30–15:30 Panel II — Democracy Under Strain: Gender, Intergenerational Justice, and Cosmopolitanism Chair: Angela Taraborrelli (University of Cagliari) Fulvia Giachetti (University of Milan-Bicocca) André Murgia (University of Cagliari) Fiammetta Sacconi (LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome)
15:30–16:30 General Discussion
16:30 Closing of the Conference
Conference Overview
This conference critically engages with Seyla Benhabib’s book At the Margins of the Modern State. Critical Theory and Law (Polity Press, 2025), interrogating tensions between universalism and exclusion in contemporary political and legal orders.
Central Questions
Can democracy be normatively and institutionally reconstructed in an age of polycrisis, fractured sovereignty, and the transformation of the public sphere? Under what conditions is democracy still possible today?
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