Staff

Lorenzo Vinciguerra teaches Moral Philosophy at the University of Bologna, after having taught History of Modern Philosophy and Aesthetics in France, where he directed the Centre de recherche en arts et esthétique and his journal Tetrade (2012-2020). At the EHESS of Paris with François Flahault (CNRS) he held the seminar Philosophie et anthropologie générale (2007-2021) and he has been the scientific director of the international project of research Ethica (2015-2018). Since 2021 he directs the Centro internazionale di studi spinoziani Sive Natura, in which he contributed for its foundation. On Spinozan themes, he has published various articles and monographies, as La semiotica di Spinoza (ETS, Pisa, 2012), Spinoza et le signe. La logique de l’imagination (Vrin, Paris, 2018), Spinoza (Carocci, Roma, 2015), translated in English, Spanish and Italian.

Filippo Del Lucchese is an Associate professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Bologna and Senior Research Associate, at the University of Johannesburg. His research focuses on the first modernity (from Renaissance to Enlightenment), the History of Political Thought and Marxism. He’s been Marie Curie fellow and he has studied at the Universities of Pisa e Paris IV (Sorbonne). He is author of Tumulti e Indignatio. Conflitto, diritto e moltitudine in Machiavelli e Spinoza (Ghibli, 2004, translated in more languages), The Political Philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli (Edinburgh University Press, 2015), e Monsters in Thought: Philosophy of Otherness in Ancient Thought. (Edinburgh University Press, 2019). He has published various articles on the history of modern political philosophy on journals as History of Political Thought, European

Journal of Political Theory, Dialogue, International Studies in Philosophy, Differences. He thought in Italy, France, Lebanon, United States and United Kingdom. His current research concerns the theme of the monstrosity of modern philosophy.

Riccardo Caporali teached Moral Philosophy at the University of Bologna. His research concerns in particular some “eccentric” authors of modern philosophy, as Machiavelli, Spinoza and Vico. He has also published: La fabbrica dell’imperium. Saggio su Spinoza (Napoli 2000), now in a revisited and extended version in its English translation Spinoza’s Political Philosophy. The factory of Imperium (Edinburgh 2022); La pazienza degli esclusi. Studi su Spinoza, Milano 2012.

Manuela Filomena Ottaviani is collaborator of the chair of Moral Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy and Communication at Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna and adjunct professor at the faculty of "Arts du Spectacle" of Arras University. Graduate student with an international co-tutorship with the University of Arras with a thesis titled: "LE CORPO JOYEUX. La pratique théâtrale comme terrain d'une éducation aux émotions. Les cas d'Odin Teatret (Eugenio Barba) et du WorkCenter de Pontedera (Richards-Grotowski) à la lumière de la philosophie de Spinoza". He graduated in Ancient Philosophy at the Università degli Studi di Milano with two Masters, one in Communication and Informatics for Human Science and the other in Theatre Education, along with her research activities, since 20 years, she is conducting an activity on the pedagogical and artistic “terrain” with a particular attention on the education of emotions and gender-issues by projecting and conducting theatre laboratories and editing the staging of educational and social theatre shows at primary and secondary schools and with groups of women. Among her most recent publications: L'ultima Pizia, Manni editore 2020; Madonna Pica, Manni editore, 2021.

Andrea Ricci Maccarini is a current collaborator for the chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Bologna and lecturer at the Studio Filosofico Domenicano of Bologna, affiliated institution with the Pontificia Università San Tommaso d’Aquino of Roma, where he obtained his doctorate degree in Philosophy in 2022 with a thesis on the theology in Spinoza.

His reserach concerns the relation between Philosophy, Theology and Politics during Modernity, with a particular interest for Modern Renaissance (Pico della Mirandola) up to ‘600 (Spinoza and Hobbes).

Diego Donna is a fixed-term reseracher of type b) (senior) at the Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies at the University of Bologna. His work concerns Modern and Contemporary Philosophy. Among his publications: Contre Spinoza. Critique, système et métamorphoses au siècle des Lumières, Genève, Georg, 2021; Dispersione Ordine Distanza. L’Illuminismo di Foucault Luhmann Blumenberg, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2020; Libertas Philosophandi. Freedom of Expression Conscience and Thought in Modern Philosophy, Modena, Mucchi, 2020; Norma, segno, autorità. Filosofia teologia politica in Spinoza, Bologna, BUP, 2019; Le catene di ragioni e l’ordine della natura. Teorie della conoscenza in Descartes e Spinoza, Milano, Mimesis, 2015.

Francesco Cerrato is Associate Professor of History of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy and Communication of the University of Bologna. He is the Director of Crivispe (Centre of Philosophical Research on the Social, Political and Economic Violence) at the same Institution and Editor in Chief of «Dianoia. Rivista di filosofia». He has worked on Seventeenth-century Ethics and Political Philosophy. He has dedicated his most significant works to Spinoza and his influence on contemporary philosophical and political thought. Among his publications are: Cause e nozioni comuni nella filosofia di Spinoza (2008), Liberare la modernità. Spinoza in Italia tra Risorgimento e Unità (2016), Stili di Vita. Fonti, forme e governo nella filosofia spinoziana degli affetti (2016), Un secolo di passioni e politica. Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza (2021).

Luigi Emilio Pischedda obtained his PhD from Ca' Foscari University in Venice and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, with a thesis in modern political philosophy entitled Tra terra e mare. Spazio, territorio e diritto nel pensiero di Spionza. His research interests lie mainly between philosophy of law and modern political philosophy, with a focus on the methodological aspects of conceptual history and political metaphorics. In addition to his work on Spinoza, during his doctorate, Pischedda also studied 17th-century Dutch political thought (Grotius, Cunaeus) and Jewish political thought. He collaborated with the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Thought (Ca' Foscari University), organising seminars, book presentations and lectures. He also animated the doctoral seminar on Spinoza at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, entitled Amici colende. He has been a member of the Societas Spinozana since 2017 and a member of its scientific committee since 2020. He currently collaborates, as a teaching tutor, with the teaching of Political Philosophy at the University of Bologna.

Simona Ferlini: I did my doctorate at the University of Pisa on Spinoza's political thought, and in particular on the theme of collective freedom and social creativity, with the help and under the guidance of, among others, Enrico Forni, Emilia Giancotti, Ubaldo Fadini and Pierre François Moreau.
Later, I left academia and started working for the public administration in the field of public health, taking a second doctorate in Medicine

I was politically active in SEL and then in DiEM25, where I was a member of the Central Committee. I am a member of Unione Popolare, but I consider my real political activity to be studying and promoting the thought of David Graeber and participating in Extinction Rebellion.

Based between Bologna and Paris, where he is doing a PhD in philosophy on the concept of actual infinity in Spinoza's Ethics and Georg Cantor's set theory at Paris Cité University. He collaborates with the international research centres Sive Natura (UniBo) and Sphère (Paris Cité - Sorbonne). In 2022 he made his debut as stage director with the play Gilgamesh (NRF festival). He participated in the collective books Canto all'Ofra (2021) and Al Bivio (2023) with the comic book author Giuseppe Palumbo, the photographer Mario Cresci and others. His short stories and poems have appeared in print and online magazines. In 2023, he won the 'Achille Marazza' poetry prize, organised by the magazine Atelier. He has volunteered in the slums of Nairobi and Lusaka.