Venice-Padua-Delhi Seminars 2014
6-8 November, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice – University of Padua

Minorities and the global populist tide
Democracy and pluralist societies challenged by ethno-religious radicalisms

—— PROGRAM ——

Thursday, November 6th 2014 – 10.00 am
Università di Padova, Sala delle Edicole – Arco Valaresso, Piazza Capitaniato, Padua

Welcome: Giovanni Luigi Fontana, Vincenzo Milanesi, Antonio Varsori (University of Padua)

Opening
Giuseppe Zaccaria | Rector, University of Padua
Giancarlo Bosetti | Director, Reset-DoC

First session
How does populism take root? Europe, India & other countries

Mauro Calise | University of Naples Federico II
Sandeep Dikshit | MP and Activist, India
Ananya Vajpeyi | Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, India
Chair: Roberto Toscano | Former Italian Ambassador to India

Second session
Minorities: Christians, Muslims and lower castes in India, migrants in Europe. Between integration, exclusion and discrimination.

Vincenzo Pace | University of Padua, Italy
Stefano Allievi | University of Padua, Italy
Adnane Mokrani | Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Italy
Rowena Robinson | Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Chair: Vincenzo Milanesi | Padua University

—

Friday, November 7th 2014 – 10.00 am
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiofe, Venice

Welcome address:
Pasquale Gagliardi | Secretary General, Fondazione Giorgio Cini

First session
Minorities and gender: affirmative action, quotas and empowerment. Current challenges in India and Europe

Marina Calloni | University of Milan-Bicocca
Suresh Sharma | Jamia Millia Islamia, India
Binalakshmi Nepram | Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network/Control Arms Foundation of India
Samreen Mushtaq  | Voices of young scholars, Jamia Millia Islamia
Chair: Ananya Vajpeyi | Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, India

Second session
Welfare, policies and minorities in contexts of social resentment. Coping with political, religious, linguistic and ethnocentric radicalization

Giuliano Amato | Constitutional Court, Italy
Rajeev Bhargava | Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, India
Franca Bimbi | University of Padua, Italy
Mujibur Rehman | Jamia Millia Islamia, India
Chair: Fabrizio Petri | Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy
—

Saturday, November 8th 2014 – 10.00 am
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice

Last session
Against fear: Cultural and political premises for an inclusive citizenship
Will Kymlicka | Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada
Avishai Margalit | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Chair: Nina zu Fürstenberg | Chair, Reset-DoC

Roundtable
Giuliano Amato, Rajeev Bhargava, Mauro Calise, Renzo Guolo
Chair: Georg Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza | Honorary President, Reset-DoC

Presentation on the Bharatanatyam dance event at the Malibran Theatre, 8pm
Marianna Biadene (Gamaka Association, Venice)

The conference:
International scholars and experts will gather for three days to discuss the political, social, cultural and philosophical aspects related to the issue of “Policies for Minorities” between East and West. The subject of state policies in favour of minorities – be they cultural, ethnic, religious, social or involving gender, in the broadest sense of the word – is a crucial issue in the debate on democracy, in particular when democracy develops in a context of cultural and religious pluralism such as in India and, increasingly, also in Europe. The condition of minorities and the manner in which they are treated at a political, institutional, social and cultural level, is a fundamental litmus test to evaluate the levels of democracy, freedom and justice a political system can boast. And yet, policies implemented ‘in favour’ of minorities to guarantee their protection, non-discrimination, social mobility and adequate democratic representation, remain, now more than ever, not only a controversial subject and one often criticised by everyone. It is above all a subject used by what we shall call ‘majority populism’, from India to Europe to the United States, especially during a crisis, to victimise the majorities and to attack minorities portrayed as parasitic and unfairly privileged by a welfare system that is (and is perceived as) increasingly weak and unfair “because of them.”

“Lights of India” 1935-1955
PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
During the 3-days of seminars held at the Giorgio Cini Foundation, Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations and the India-Europe Foundation for New Dialogues (FIND) are delighted to invite you to the photography exhibition “Lights of India” 1935-1955 at the Cini Foundation, presenting over 40 black and white images from the Alain Daniélou and Raymond Burnier archives kept at the FIND Foundation in Zagarolo, Italy. Admission is free of charge.

“Rasanubhava”
BHARATANATYAM DANCING EVENT
The FIND event on Saturday, November 8th
In cooperation with Reset-DoC, Gamaka Association and Tocna Danza (Venice), the India-Europe Foundation for New Dialogues (FIND) is pleased to present a performance of classical Indian Bharatanatyam dance by the award-winning dancer Leela Samson, with Nidheesh Kumar, Indu Nidheesh and a renowned group of musicians, at the prestigious Malibran Theatre in Venice on November 8th 2014 at 8 p.m.
During the event, the FIND Foundation will be responsible for the artistic direction.

Bharatanatyam dance Workshop
From Friday November 7th to Sunday November 9th, Leela Samson, as guest of the Gamaka Association directed by Marianna Biadene, will hold an intensive workshop on Bharatanatyam dancing for both dancers and professionals, organized in cooperation with the FIND Foundation, (for information on the programme see contacts below).

For more detailed information on the dancing event please refer to
FIND India Europe Foundation for New Dialogues
www.find.org.in
Email: info@find.org.in

Associazione Gamaka
http://gama-ka.blogspot.it/
Email: gama-ka@live.com

PUBLICATIONS
Seminar Magazine special Reset-DoC issues
Contributions to the first edition of our Seminars about Minorities and Pluralism (Delhi, 2010) and of the second edition about Cultural differences in times of economic turbulence (Venice, 2012)  were published in special issues of Seminar magazine: No.621, 2011 and No.649, 2013 (available online). Contributions to the third edition of the Seminars, about Religious pluralism and freedom of expression held in New Delhi (10-12 October 2013) will be published in a forthcoming special issue of Seminar magazine.

Access to the conference is free and open to all

The fourth edition Venice-Padua-Delhi Seminars is organized by Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations in cooperation with the Giorgio Cini Foundation (Venice), the Islamic University in Delhi Jamia Millia Islamia, FIND India-Europe Foundation for New Dialogues, Seminar magazine, Gamaka Association and Tocna Danza (Venice).
The event is held under the Patronage of the University of Padua and with a contribution of its Departments of Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy and Applied Psychology (FISSPA) and of Political Sciences, Law and International Studies (SPGI).

For information about the Seminar
resetmag@tin.it

BIOGRAPHIES OF THE SPEAKERS

Stefano Allievi is the Director of the Master Course on Islam in Europe and the President of the master’s degree course in Sociology at the University of Padua, where he is a Professor of Sociology. From 2001 to 2007 he served as the Secretary of the Sociology of Religion section of the Italian Association of Sociology. He has directed and participated in research programs on cultural and religious plurality in Italy and he coordinated the program on Conflicts over mosques in Europe, on behalf of the Network of European Foundations. Among his recent books La guerra delle moschee. L’Europa e la sfida del pluralismo religioso (2010), Producing Islamic Knowledge. Transmission and dissemination in Western Europe (2011) Ma la moschea no… I conflitti sui luoghi di culto islamici (ed., 2012), Chi ha ucciso il PD (e cosa si può fare per salvare quel che ne resta)(2013). Prof. Allievi also is a professional journalist.

Giuliano Amato is a Judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy, since September 2013. He served as Secretary of the Treasury in Italy and was the Italian Prime Minister in 1992-‘93 and in 2000-‘01. From 2006 to 2008 he served as the Minister of the Interior. He was the vice-chairman of the Convention for the European Constitution. He has chaired the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani and the Center for American Studies in Rome. A Professor of Law in several Italian universities and aboroad, he has written books and articles on the economy and public institutions, European antitrust, personal liberties, comparative government, European integration and humanities. He has served as the Chair of Reset-DoC’s scientific committee from 2003 to 2013.

Rajeev Bhargava is a Professor of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi. He has served as the Director of the Centre from 2007 to 2014. He was formerly a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Between 2001 and 2005, he was the Professor of Political Theory and Indian Political Thought, and the Head of the Department of Political Science at University of Delhi. He has been a Fellow and a Visiting Professor in several international institutions and his research concerns issues of Indian secularism, constitutionalism and multiculturalism. Among other books, he has authored Secularism and its Critics, Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, What is Political Theory and Why Do We Need It?, and The Promise of India’s Secular Democracy.

Marianna Biadene Dancer, Choreographer, and Dance Educator, she is a member of CID- Unesco International Dance Council and President of Gamaka Association. She began her training with renowned masters Savitri Nair and C.V. Chandrasekhar at Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice) and underwent further training in India under the guidance of Ambika Buch and Pushpa Shankar at the prestigious academy Kalakshetra Foundation. Since 2001 she continued her professional training in London while continuing to study with dance tutors of international standing (C.V. Chandrasekhar, N.S. Jayalakshmi, Smt. Radha, Meena Raman, Leela Samson, Bragha Bessel). She has been performing internationally, both as a soloist and with dance companies (Beeja Dance Company, London 2004-2008, Moksha 2008-2011) or with independent performing artists. Since 2012 she is Artistic Director of the NATYAKALA Festival, an international festival dedicated to Indian Classical Performing Arts held annually in Venice. In 2011 she translated and edited The Mirror of the Gesture by author A.K. Coomaraswamy for the Italian publisher Casadeilibri (Lo Specchio del Gesto, 2011).

Franca Bimbi is a Professor of Sociology at University of Padua, a member of the Department of Sociology, Philosophy, Education and Applied Psychology, as well as a member of the board of Doctoral School in Social Sciences. She is a member of the Administrative Council of her University. She contributed to the development of Gender Studies in Italy, planning and coordinating national and international research and training activities on gender and differences and European welfare models. She is the European coordinator for the EU project “Speak Out! Empowering Migrant, Refugee and Ethnic Minority Women Against Gender Violence”. She was a Deputy Major for the Venice Municipality and President of Equal Opportunity Commission for Veneto Region. Member of Parliament from 2001 to 2008, she has served as the President of the Committee of European Policies. She is the author of numerous volumes and articles about gender theory, welfare and social policies translated into different languages.

Giancarlo Bosetti is the director and one of the founders of Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations. He is the editor-in-chief of the online journal www.resetdoc.org and of Reset, a cultural magazine he founded in 1993. He was vice-editor-in-chief of the Italian daily L’Unità. He is currently a columnist for the Italian daily La Repubblica and he has been teaching at University La Sapienza, and University Roma Tre. Among his books La lezione di questo secolo, a book-interview with Karl Popper, Cattiva maestra televisione, (ed.) writings by Karl Popper and others, Cattiva maestra, La rabbia di Oriana Fallaci e il suo contagio, (2005), Spin, Trucchi e tele-imbrogli della politica (2007),  Il Fallimento dei laici furiosi (2009).

Mauro Calise is Professor of Political Science, University of Naples Federico II, and the former President of the Società Italiana di Scienza Politica (2007-10). He is the Editor  of the International Political Science Association Web Portal for Electronic Sources and the Director of Federica, the largest Italian Web-learning Portal, funded by the EU. He has taught and lectured throughout Italy, Europe, and the United States. He has published books, journal articles and newspaper columns in several areas, including state theory, political parties, executive elites, political communication and concept analysis. His recent interests focus on Internet epistemology and culture. He has developed and directed several web projects. He is the author, with Theodore J. Lowi, of Hyperpolitics, An Interactive Dictionary of Political Science, University of Chicago Press. Among his latest Italian books: Fuorigioco. La sinistra contro i suoi leader, La Terza Repubblica, Partiti contro Presidentiand Il partito personale. Since 1995 he writes a weekly column for Il Mattino.

Marina Calloni is a Professor in social and political philosophy at the University of Milano-Bicocca in Milan. She is Ambassador in Italy for the Eliminate Domestic Violence Global Foundation.  Her main topics concerns: gender issues; democracy and  conflicts; European citizenship; Critique of violence. She is directing the research centre “PRAGSIA” (Public Reasoning and Global Society in Action), based at the Department of Sociology and Social Research. She is co-founder of the “European Platform of Women Scientists”, and of the “Unesco Network of Women Philosophers”. She is the author of several books, including: Il male che si deve raccontare. Per cancellare la violenza domestica (2013, with Simonetta A. Hornby); Chiedo asilo. Essere rifugiato in Italia (2012, with S. Marras and G. Serughetti); Filosofia politica contemporanea (2012, with L. Cedroni); Builders of a “New Europe”. Women Migrants from the Eastern Transregions (2012, with A. Saarinen); Umanizzare l’umanitarismo (2009); Gender Politics and Democracy in Post-socialist Europe (2008, with Y.Galligan, S.Clavero).

Sandeep Dikshit was a Member of the 15^th Lok Sabha of India, elected from East Delhi of Delhi state as a member of Indian National Congress Party. Before entering active politics, he headed a social development group SANKET which pioneered the first sub-national Human Development Report in the world in 1996. He has worked on rural development and human development issues for the last 15 years in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. He worked with various voluntary organizations in the field as well as for research and advocacy.

Giovanni Luigi Fontana is the Director of the Department of History, Geography and Antiquity at the University of Padua, where he is a faculty member and a Professor of Economic History. He is the director of several various scientific collections, a member of the Executive Council of the Italian Society of Historians of Economics (SISE) and the coordinator of the Italian-French Committee for the Italian-French for Economic History. He has coordinated several European projects and Research Programs of Relevant National Interest (PRIN), directed a number of projects for the Veneto Region, local authorities, companies and economic institutions. He founded and served as president from 1997 to 2007 of the Italian Association for the industrial archaeological heritage (AIPAI ) and was Italy’s national representative and board member at The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH).

Nina zu Fürstenberg is the founder and the Chair of Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations. She has been focusing for years on the study of Islam and on the promotion of intercultural dialogue, working as a journalist for Reset-Doc’s online journal and for the Italian cultural magazine Reset. She edited Euro-Islam. L’integrazione mancata by Bassam Tibi, Lumi dell’Islam. Nove intellettuali musulmani parlano di libertà and Europa laica e puzzle religioso with Krzysztof Michalski. She is the author of Chi ha paura di Tariq Ramadan. L’Europa di fronte al riformismo islamico (German version 2008) and edited recently a book of Nasr Abu Zayd, Testo sacro e libertà. Per una lettura critica del Corano.

Pasquale Gagliardi is the Secretary General of the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice since 2005. Since 1986 he has been professor of the sociology of organisations in the Faculty of Political Sciences at the Catholic University, Milan. From 1961 to 1970 he was involved in research, and managerial training and consultancy, mainly for Pietro Gennaro & Associati and the Boston Consulting Group. From 1970 to 1977 he worked in companies with direct managerial responsibilities: he was managing director of the UPIM chain, part of the Rinascente Group, from 1970 to 1974, and then joint general manager of an industrial conglomerate. From 1977 to 2005 he was the head of ISTUD, where he achieved his mission of making the institute economically and financially independent and enabling it to take an active part in scientific thinking about management and organisations in the Italian and international scientific community. As a scholar, Pasquale Gagliardi has contributed to the international spread of the use of cultural and social anthropology in studying the issues faced by companies and contemporary institutions. On this subject he has published articles, essays and books both in Italy and abroad; the best-known is Le imprese come culture (1986), published by ISEDI. He is a member of the editorial board of Organization and Organization Studies, and a member of the scientific committee of AICIS- Åland International Institute of Comparative Island Studies.

Renzo Guolo is Professor of Cultural and Political Sociology, as well as a Professor of Sociology of Islam in the Master Course on Islam in Europe at the University of Padua. Here, he is the President of the degree course in Sociology. His research interest lies in the integration and conflicts within multicultural societies, sociology of Islam and examination of Islamic communities in Italy and Europe. He writes regularly for leading journals like Il Mulino, Limes and Religioni e Società and is a regular commentator of the newspaper La Repubblica. He has published several books including Chi impugna la croce – Lega e Chiesa (2011), Identità e paura: gli italiani e l’immigrazione, (2010), Potere e responsabilità. Obama, L’islam e la comunità internazionale (2009), Generazione del fronte, Guerini, 2008; La via dell’Imam (Laterza, 2007). He is a member of Reset-DoC’s scientific committee.

Will Kymlicka is the Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy in the Philosophy Department at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, where he has taught since 1998. His research interests focus on issues of democracy and diversity, and in particular on models of citizenship and social justice within multicultural societies. He has published eight books, including Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights, and Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity. His work has been translated into 33 languages, and has received several awards, most recently, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and Honorary Doctorates from the University of Copenhagen and KU Leuven. He is the co-director, along with Keith Banting, of the Multiculturalism Policy Index project, which monitors the evolution of multiculturalism policies across the Western democracies.

Avishai Margalit is a Professor Emeritus of philosophy at The Hebrew University and a Member of Israel Academy of Science. He was the George F.Kennan professor at the institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (2006-2011). He is a recipient of Spinoza Lens prize (2001), Emet prize (2007), Israel prize (2010), Leopold Lucas prize 2011 and Ernest Bloch prize 2012. His books include: Idolatry (with Moshe Halbertal), The Decent Society, The Ethics of Memory, Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies (with Ian Buruma), and On Compromise and Rotten Compromises. He is a member of Reset-DoC’s scientific committee.

Vincenzo Milanesi is the Director of the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy and Applied Psychology (FISPPA) at Padua University, where he is a Professor in Moral Philosophy. From 2002 to 2009 he served as the Rector of Padua University. He specializes in philosophical ethics, English, American and Italian contemporary philosophy, pragmatism and utilitarian ethics as well as bioethics. He is a member of several scientific and ethical committees for Universities and Ministries in Italy, a member of the Société Européenne de Culture in Venice and of the Galileian Society in Padua. He has published many books and articles and regularly writes on the press.

Adnane Mokrani Tunisian Muslim theologian engaged in Muslim-Christian dialogue, Professor of Islamic Studies at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) and the Pontifical Gregorian University, Department of Theology of Religions (Rome). He holds a PhD in Islamic Theology from Al-Zaytuna University (Tunis) and a PhD in Muslim-Christian Relations from the PISAI. He authored many books and articles in Arabic, Italian and other languages. Among others, he is the author of: Leggere il Corano a Roma [Reading the Qur’an in Rome].

Samreen Mushtaq was born in Indian administered Kashmir in 1989, the year armed conflict erupted in the valley. She completed her schooling from St. Josephs Higher Secondary School, went on to do Bachelors in Mass Communication before moving to New Delhi India for Masters in Political Science from Jamia Millia Islamia. She is currently a Research Scholar in the same university and her work is focused on women and conflict. She is the editor of the Department of Political Science JMI Annual magazine Episteme and a Staff Writer for Jamia Journal, a students’ e-magazine at Jamia.

Binalakshmi Nepram, born in the state of Manipur located in India’s Northeast region is a writer, civil rights activist spearheading work on making women-led disarmament a movement. She is author of four books namely a book of poetry called Poetic Festoon (1992); South Asia’s Fractured Frontier (2002), Meckley, a historical fiction based on Manipur (2004) and an edited book titled India and the Arms Trade Treaty 2009. She is currently working on her 5th book on Women, Peace & Security in Northeast India and issue of rising racism in India. In 2004, Ms Nepram co-founded India’s first civil society organization which is working on conventional disarmament issues, namely the Control Arms Foundation of India. In 2007 launched the Manipur Women Gun Survivor Network. She has represented Indian civil society in various women and disarmament meetings held at United Nations in New York. Ms Nepram is recipient of several international awards and in 2013, London based organization Action on Armed Violence named her as “100 most influential people in world working on armed violence reduction”.

Vincenzo Pace Professor of Sociology of Religion at Padua University. He is Coordinator of the Social Sciences Class of the Galilean School of Higher Education of Padua University. He was director of the Master of “Studies on Islam in Europe” and has served as the director of the Department of Sociology in Padua from 1999 to 2005. He is the former president of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR) and has been visiting Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His area of work primarily focuses on secularization, de-secularization, the sociology of Islam, new religious communities in Italian society, identity and religious boundaries. Among his recent books:  Religion as Communication (2011),  “Le Religioni nell’Italia che cambia. Mappe e bussole” (2013), “The Changing Soul of Europe. Religion and Migration in Northern and Southern Europe” (2014).

Fabrizio Petri is an Italian diplomat and author. At present, he is Plenipotentiary Minister and is particularly involved in the field of human rights. He has held several diplomatic functions both at the headquarters in Rome and abroad, among others in New Delhi and Paris. In Rome, as well as positions held at the Office of the General Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he covered the position of Head of the Office for Central Europe and the Baltics, and then the position of Head of the Italian Delegation in occasion of the G8 Presidency in 2009. He lives in Italy but he has developed a growing interest in India, country that he often visits and where he has many friends. Among other works, he authored the books Open Dharma (2014) and Open Kharma (2012).

Mujibur Rehman teaches at Jamia Millia Central University, New Delhi. He received his graduate training at the University of Texas, Austin; the University of Heidelberg, Germany; and at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi. He specializes in Identity politics and political economy. Dr. Rehman’s book,(ed.) Communalism in Post-Colonial India: Changing Contours (Routledge, 2015) is forthcoming, and another on Election 2014 to be published by Routledge. He also writes oped and reviews for major Indian newspapers.

Rowena Robinson is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and has taught earlier at Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. current research interests are in the areas of minority studies, anthropology/sociology of marginalized communities and corruption. Among other publications, she is author of Boundaries of Religion: Essays on Christianity, ethnic conflict and violence (Oxford University Press, 2013) and Tremors of violence: Muslim survivors of ethnic strife in western India (Sage, 2005) and editor of Minority Studies (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Suresh Sharma is former Professor of History and Anthropology and Director of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) Delhi. Currently, he is Visiting Professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, and Correspondent Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study, Nantes. His publications include Tribal Identity and the Modern World (New Delhi, 1994), and M.K. Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj: A Critical Edition(New Delhi, 2010). At present, working on Things as the Measure: An essay on Gandhi’s Critique of Modern Civilisation; and Word and image as Two Forms of Language.

Georg Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza has been the Chairman and CEO of the TBG Group. His schooling took place in Austria and Germany; with university studies completed with a law degree in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1978. In 1983 Mr. Thyssen was appointed CEO of TBG and in 1991 Chairman and CEO. In 2007 he stepped down as CEO but continues to serve as Chairman of the General Management until today. He created the Nomis Foundation, which is primarily engaged in biological research, but also in the field of humanities. He is founder and Honorary President of Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations.

Roberto Toscano former Italian Ambassador to Iran (2003-2008) and India (2008-2010) is today Visiting professor at IE-Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, Senior Research Associate at the Barcelona Center for International Affairs- CIDOB and a columnist for the Italian daily La Stampa, as well as President of the Intercultura Foundation, Italy. He is the author of several books and articles published in Italy, Spain, the US and India. Amongst his recent books: Between terrorism and global governance: essays on ethics, violence and international law (2009), Beyond Violence. Principles for an Open Century (with R. Jahanbegloo, 2009) and La violenza, le regole (2006). He is a member of the Scientific Committee of Reset-Dialogues.

Ananya Vajpeyi is an intellectual historian based at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi. She is also a Global Ethics Fellow with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, New York. Among several other awards, her first book, Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India (Harvard UP, 2012) received the 41st Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize, and listed as a Book of the Year 2012 by The Guardian newspaper (UK) and The New Republic magazine (USA). She has taught at Columbia University, NY, at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, and at the University of Venice, Italy. She writes regularly for The Hindu newspaper, and for a variety of newspapers and magazines in India and overseas. Vajpeyi works at the intersection of intellectual history, political theory and critical philology. She is currently writing a book about the life and ideas of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956). In the Fall of 2013 and the Fall of 2014, Vajpeyi is a Kluge Fellow in residence at the John W. Kluge Center in the Library of Congress.

Antonio Varsori is the director of the Department of Political Sciences, Law and International Studies at Padua University, where he is a faculty and Professor in History of International Relations. He is Chairman of the European Union Liaison Committee of Historians (European Commission) and the Chairman of the Italian Society for International History. He was twice a Jean Monnet Chair of History of European Integration and the person responsible for the Jean Monnet Centre at the University of Florence, and was mentioned as a “success story” in the Jean Monnet Program. He is a member of several international scientific committees and has taught in many international universities. Among his numerous publications, his book L’Italia nelle relazioni internazionali dal 1943 al 1992 is adopted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the open competitive exam in diplomacy.

Giuseppe Zaccaria is the Rector of Padua University. A professor of General Theory of Law at the same University, since 1990, he is a member of the scientific committee of several national and international journals. His scientific publications are mainly related to issues of legal philosophy and the philosophy of hermeneutics, legal interpretation, the hermeneutic theory of law, jurisprudence, legal methodology, the relationship between authority and power, contemporary political and institutional problems . His essays and books have been translated into English, French and Spanish. He has lectured and participated in international conferences and seminars around the world. Among his latest publications, La comprensione del diritto (2012), Presenza e assenza di Dio nel mondo contemporaneo. Dialogo tra il cardinale Gianfranco Ravasi e Giuseppe Zaccaria (2013).