Reset DOC

May

2025

Venice International University

The conference and seminars will examine the decline of liberal democracies, exploring the discontent between the elite and the working and middle classes, the ineffectiveness of traditional grievance channels, and the rise of radical polarization and extremist views. It will also address growing inequalities and the challenge of finding new frameworks to resolve the evolving conflict between the many and the few, with a focus on how modern philosophy can play a key role in developing solutions.

January

2025

Rome, Italy

This international conference will address the critical challenges facing liberal democracies. It will explore their failure to respond effectively to the anxieties and needs of citizens grappling with globalization, precarious employment, demographic changes, and social dislocation. These issues, amplified by populist rhetoric and the perceived indifference of liberal elites, have led to growing polarization, weakened societal cohesion, and ideological stagnation in politics.

December

2024

Online

Is Donald Trump’s electoral success a sign of authoritarian decline in American democracy, or is it a response to the Democratic Party’s failure to deliver on its promises? Daron Acemoglu recently argued the latter, suggesting the Left has focused too narrowly on cultural recognition at the expense of material protections. This neglect of the social order’s material foundations has deepened tensions, fueling “culture wars.” Shifting focus away from these conflicts toward social protections to tackle global crises is a compelling idea—but is it feasible, and how might it be achieved?

Analyses

Yassin al-Haj Saleh, born in 1961, is one of Syria’s foremost intellectuals and a long-standing dissident against the Assad regime. He spent sixteen years in prison for “political reasons,” including time in the maximum-security facility of Tadmur, also known as Palmyra. With the onset of the Syrian Spring, he immediately emerged as an opponent of the regime.

International Affairs
What’s Behind the Arab Alternative to Trump’s Gaza Proposal
Hussein Ibish 24 February 2025
International Affairs
Syria, Aziz Biro: “A Federal Project and Kurds in the New Government”
Ilaria Romano 24 February 2025
Political Theory
Postliberalism(s): A Brief History of a Resurgent Ideology – With Chris Wright
Fulvia Giachetti 19 February 2025
International Affairs
Boussois: “The Saudis Against Trump, But Normalization with Israel is Inevitable”
Federica Zoja 15 February 2025
Political Theory, Society
Indian Americans, Christian Nationalists, and Post-Liberal America
Chandra Mallampalli 12 February 2025
International Affairs
Rogozinski on Gaza: “Who Will Forgive us, If We Can’t Ask for Forgiveness for These Crimes?”
Jacob Rogozinski 10 February 2025

Publications

From poetry to cinema, from microblogging to theater, from literature to journalism, arts and media are always a fertile ground for experimentation and imagination, creativity and political dissent. That is the case across Arab and Muslim societies, too. The output of the 2021 edition of the Carthage Seminars, this e-book strives to shed light on those very intellectual resources – often neglected, at times repressed – to unpack the complexity of societies and cultural experiences across the MENA region. A specific focus is provided, in the second part, on the social and cultural ferment in Tunisia, a particularly interesting reality, that deserves special attention in this season of great political and democratic uncertainty.

Our Initiatives

The Dublin Seminars, in partnership with Boston College Ireland and Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, have kicked out in 2023 to establish as a remarkable cultural appointment, able to promote and consolidate a network of cultural, intellectual and academic relationships among senior and junior scholars in the social sciences, political theory, sociology, legal and religious studies. Thanks to its cross-cultural inspiration, the Dublin Seminars function as an original think tank for a thorough understanding of the challenges facing democracy, politics and international relations in the 21st-century world.

The project “Theologies and practices of religious pluralism” investigates current debates and issues on pluralism within and across religious traditions and how some of these debates are reshaping the status of religion in different public spaces. These adaptations have a profound impact on international relations and daily life in every society, across cultural, ethnic, racial divides. This project is jointly promoted by Reset DOC (Italy), Reset Dialogues (US) the University of Birmingham (UK), the Berkeley Center at Georgetown University (US), the Foundation for Religious Sciences in Bologna and Palermo (Italy) and the Haifa Laboratory for Religious Studies (Israel).

Illiberal trend

Riccardo Cristiano interviews for Reset DOC political scientist Cengiz Aktar on the Turkish nationalist-authoritarian shift. A 360 degrees picture of Turkish society and its relationship with politics, religion and the Kurdish question.