In the Frame of the of the COV&R 2025
"Spirituality, religion and the sacred"
Rome Campus, Australian Catholic University
June 4-7, 2025
Panel: “René Girard Politico” Studies Center
Guglielminetti, Ferronato, Fornari & Barberi
University of Padua
This panel aims to present the Studies Center “René Girard Politico”, established at the University of Padua’s Department of Political Science, Law, and International Studies. The session will provide an overview of the center’s mission and activities since its founding in 2021, as well as outline its future directions. The “René Girard Politico” Studies Center serves as a hub for scholars interested in exploring and testing the potential of collaborative initiatives centered on Girard’s thought. The focus is especially on the political dimensions of his mimetic and victimary theory, approached through both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses.
While the center’s core perspective is grounded in the history of political thought, philosophy, political science, it also welcomes contributions from comparative literature, international relations, anthropology, theology—viewed both in their expressive and broadly “political” dimensions.
In recent years, the Centre promoted knowledge of Girard’s paradigm by organising conferences and lecture series that explored the relationships between Girard and Machiavelli, Hobbes, Schmitt. In 2024, the conference “Reading Achever Clausewitz: War and the End of History in René Girard” brought together scholars from different backgrounds, both experts on Girard and avid readers new to the Girardian paradigm.
