10/07/2026
The fifth Venice Multidisciplinary World Conference on Republics and Republicanism, organized by the Venice International University (VIU) Consortium, of which Sabancı University is a member, was held in Venice from June 26 to 28, 2026.
Sabancı University, a member of the VIU Consortium from Türkiye, added another international academic collaboration to its portfolio. This year's conference, one of the leading international gatherings in the field of republican studies, brought together academics from various disciplines under the theme "Power, Freedom and Oligarchy."
The three-day conference featured research papers and interdisciplinary roundtable discussions on political theory and philosophy, law, political, cultural, economic and social history, and contemporary political practices. The keynote speakers at the conference were Philip Pettit, a professor at Princeton University and the Australian National University, and Camila Vergara, a professor at the University of Essex, both leading figures in republican political theory worldwide.
The conference organizing committee included Dario Castiglione, Sara De Vido, Oleg Kharkhordin, Luca Pes, and Banu Turnaoğlu Açan, a faculty member at Sabancı University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Turnaoğlu Açan contributed to the organization and preparation of the academic program, presented a paper, and chaired a session. These contributions constitute a significant example of how Sabancı University's membership in the VIU Consortium is reflected in international academic collaborations and joint scientific activities.
The conference also reunited two recipients of the 2023 Sakıp Sabancı International Research Awards in Venice. In the awards given under the theme “The 100th Anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye: Republicanism in Theory and Practice,” Philip Pettit was awarded the Special Jury Prize, while Banu Turnaoğlu Açan was among the winners of the article prize with her work titled “Republicanism in Türkiye: Visions, Dreams and Cultivations of a Political Reality.” Pettit and Turnaoğlu Açan met again in Venice at one of the leading international conferences on republicanism studies.
The Venice Multidisciplinary World Conference on Republics and Republicanism, which began in 2019, is one of the important academic platforms with international visibility in the field of republicanism studies. The conference series opens up discussions on the historical, theoretical, and contemporary dimensions of republican thought within an interdisciplinary framework.
