1ST LISBON-PRAGUE MACHIAVELLIAN JOINT CONFERENCES 2027
“500 YEARS AFTER MACHIAVELLI”
THEME: THE MANY LIVES OF MACHIAVELLI’S THOUGHT
ORG.: LISBON-PRAGUE MACHIAVELLI SEMINAR
LISBON CONFERENCE
Machiavelli Speaks Across the Atlantic:
The Many Lives of Machiavelli’s Thought – From the Latin World to the Americas
Dates: 5 – 7 July 2027
Location: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal)
Confirmed keynote speakers: Alessandra Petrina (Università degli Studi di Padova), Marco Geuna (Università degli Studi di Milano) & Natasha Piano (University of California, Los Angeles – UCLA)
Lisbon organising committee: André Santos Campos, Giovanni Damele and Inês Pinheiro (Laboratory of Ethics and Political Philosophy, NOVA Institute of Philosophy)
Conference website: lisbon500machiavelli.wordpress.com/
Conference e-mail: lisbon500machiavelli@gmail.com
THE LISBON CONFERENCE’S MOTO
Upon the passing of 500 years of Niccolò Machiavelli’s death, the Portuguese pole of the Lisbon-Prague Machiavelli Seminar is hosting a conference dedicated to the reception of Machiavelli’s thought in the modern and contemporary eras. While his works have exerted a profound and lasting influence across global political philosophy, history and public discourse, the Lisbon conference will focus specifically on the consequences, controversies, and transformations of Machiavellian thought within the Latin world, namely Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, and its transatlantic expansion into the Americas, both South and North America.
From the very beginning, the Florentine secretary’s ideas ignited fierce intellectual disputes, positioning his work at the centre of Renaissance debates on statecraft and the religious conflicts of the era. The Latin and Catholic spheres were instrumental in defining the early boundaries of this legacy. It was here that foundational premises of anti-Machiavellianism were forged by figures operating on opposite sides of religious controversies, such as the Portuguese bishop Jerónimo Osório, the French Huguenot Innocent Gentillet, and the Italian Jesuit Giovanni Botero.
As Machiavelli’s ideas crossed the Atlantic, they found new life in the Americas. His thought became a vital reference point across the ideological spectrum, mutating from the early modern European debates into a tool for shaping constitutionalism, revolution, and modern political theory. From the Enlightenment rehabilitations sparked by Rousseau to the twentieth century appropriations by Marxist, fascist, liberal-democratic and radical-democratic populist movements, the geopolitical axis of the Latin world and the Americas as served as a dynamic laboratory for interpreting, and often weaponizing, Machiavellian realism.
This conference seeks to map these geographical and intellectual networks, exploring how Machiavelli’s thought has lived on for the past five hundred years, how it was read, translated, resisted to, adapted and reclaimed across these interconnected regions over half a millennium.
We are looking for contributions within, but not limited, to the following topics:
- The Machiavellians
Analysis of the interpretations and/or appropriations of Machiavelli’s thought, and the many possible meanings behind the adjective “Machiavellian” - Machiavelli in the lusophone sphere
The reception of Machiavelli in Portugal and Brazil - Machiavelli in the Spanish speaking world
The reception of Machiavelli in Spain and in the Spanish speaking South America - Le Florentin amongst the Frenchmen
The reception of Machiavelli in the francophone world - Machiavelli in “The Land of the Free”
The reception of Machiavelli in North America - Machiavelli in political discourse
The presence of Machiavelli’s ideas in political discourse and its appropriation - Machiavelli and the Art of Rhetoric
Machiavelli’s teachings and examples for Rhetoric - The reception of Machiavelli in the literary field
Analysis of his theatrical and literary works, and the transposition of Machiavelli to Literature - Machiavellian translations
Challenges of translating Machiavelli
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Language: Proposals and presentations are welcome in English.
Individual abstract submissions: 400 words max., and 3-5 keywords.
Panel submissions: each panel submission must be done by one person only, ideally the panel’s proposed chair. It must encompass between 3 (minimum) to 6 (maximum) individual presentations, each with a title, an abstract (400 words max.) and 3-5 keywords.
Submission deadline: 15th December 2026.
Notification of acceptance: 31st January 2027.
ATTENTION: The proposals must be prepared for blind peer-review, so please send two separate Word documents. In the case of individual abstract submissions, please send: 1) one Word document with the title, abstract and keywords; 2) another Word document with your biographical information (affiliation, contact and biographical note of 200 words max.). In the case of panel submissions, we ask that the person submitting the panel proposal sends: 1) one Word document with all the presentations of the panel (titles, abstracts and keywords); 2) another Word document with all the biographical information of all the panel participants (affiliation, contact and biographical notes of 200 words max., each).
The proposals are to be submitted via e-mail to the conference’s e-mail address: lisbon500machiavelli@gmail.com.
PARTICIPATION FEES
• Established academics (lecturers and researchers): 60€
• Early-career scholars (PhD students): 30€
These fees have been calculated to meet unavoidable expenses and will apply to those with accepted communications, to cover organisation and catering costs. The modalities of payment will be announced in due course.
In order to proceed with the registration for the conference, we will ask that all accepted participants send a proof of payment to the conference’s e-mail address: lisbon500machiavelli@gmail.com. We will issue receipts of payment for each participant, and invoices with the necessary data upon request.
Payment deadline for the fees: 28th February 2027.
CONFERENCE PUBLICATION
We are planning to organise a special issue with a selection of the conference’s papers. Further details regarding this publication will be announced in the near future.
CONFERENCE DINNER
We are also planning on organising a conference dinner. The date and venue are yet to be confirmed, as they depend on the number of participants, but we expect the cost to be €25 per person.
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
André Santos Campos, Giovanni Damele and Inês Pinheiro
(Laboratory of Ethics and Political Philosophy, NOVA Institute of Philosophy)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding: This conference is supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e para a Tecnologia) of the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science under the project UID/00183/2025 https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/00183/2025.