The Turin Humanities Programme and Fondazione1563 are pleased to invite postgraduate students and early career researchers to submit their applications to the Summer School “Enlightenment legacy: the rights of man in a global perspective”.

The Summer School intends to elucidate, from a global perspective, a fundamental – although often neglected – aspect of the legacy of the Enlightenment to better understand its enduring and controversial presence over time in the fields of politics, society, law, and economics.

Namely, the Summer School will focus on the political and constitutional language of the rights of man, seen as the most lasting legacy of the cultural revolution through which the Enlightenment changed the course of global history, acting as a “laboratory of modernity”.

The Summer School will engage with the Enlightenment’s transformation of the old moral concept of natural rights into the modern political language of the “rights of man” and the ambitious Enlightenment project of bringing about the constitutionalization of the rights of man as part of a modern politics of emancipation that began well ahead of the French Revolution.

Moreover, the Summer School will explore the controversial affirmation and metamorphoses of the Enlightenment’s culture of the rights of man in a global context throughout the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. By so doing, the Summer School aims at shedding light on the Enlightenment’s relevance to deal with issues raised by the contemporary evolutions of global constitutionalism and governance, that still require to be addressed.

The THP Summer School provides a forum for postgraduate students and early career researchers in the field of humanities and the social sciences (history, philosophy, law, economics, political science and international relations) to engage with the most up-to-date academic debates and global historiographical currents on the Enlightenment and its cultural, political and legal legacy.

We encourage applications from researchers with a strong interest in human rights/rights of man and woman/natural rights in an historical, global and interdisciplinary setting. In particular, but not limited to:

• constitutions and the constitutionalization of human rights
• the development of representative democracy
• ancient and modern republicanism
• political economy and commerce
• the law of nations and international law
• race, slavery, colonialism

English will be the default language of the Summer School.

The Summer School programme includes keynote lectures of Professor Nicholas Cronk (Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford), Professor Dan Edelstein (Stanford University), Professor Serena Ferente (University of Amsterdam), Professor Vincenzo Ferrone (University of Torino), Professor Franco Motta (University of Torino), Professor Céline Spector (Sorbonne Université), Giovanni Bietti (composer, pianist and musicologist), early career researchers’ presentations of original manuscripts/book projects, workshops and roundtable discussions.

To foster dialogue between senior and young scholars, the Summer School offers its participants a unique opportunity to contribute to the broader discussion on the human rights theme with their own ideas and to test their research.

Successful applicants will also have the chance to present their papers in panel sessions which will be followed by a Q&A led by a panel discussant.

To apply for the Summer School, prospective participants should submit a brief academic CV (max. 2 pages), an abstract of the research they wish to present (max. 400 words) and a short essay on why they would like to attend the Summer School (max. 200 words).

Please, upload these materials within the application form that can be found on the website of Fondazione 1563 at the following link: www.fondazione1563.it/application-form-thp-summer-school/ by 5.00 PM (Italian/CET time) of June 20, 2022. 

The Summer School will be activated only with a minimum of 10 participants, a maximum of 15 participants is allowed.

The participation in the Summer School is free to all Italian and International postgraduate students and early career researchers.

Travelling expenses to and from Torino and accommodation expenses in Torino will be borne by the participants. Fondazione 1563 will provide the participants with a list of hotels where they can get special offers as participants of the Summer School.

Upon acceptance of the participation in the Summer School, the participants will be asked to confirm their participation in the social events proposed by Fondazione 1563.

For information, please contact the organisers at info@fondazione1563.it

The candidates will be selected according to a meritocratic criteria based on the curriculum and the relevance of the submitted research.

The candidates will be informed of the selection result by July 12, 2022 via the email address they included in the application form.

The selected candidates will receive the attendance form that will have to be signed for acceptance and returned, on pain of forfeiture, within 5 working days starting from the date of the communication of having been selected by Fondazione 1563.

Fondazione 1563 reserves the right to suspend, modify or cancel this selection procedure or the Summer School in any moment at its incontestable discretion, without that being in any way for the Candidates a right or a demand to claim any refund, compensation or reimbursement.