ELEONORA PIROMALLI

NOTICE: my office is no longer Room 124. It is now Room 109 (first floor, Villa Mirafiori).
Students who wish to contact me about supervising a thesis are kindly requested to READ the “Theses” section below carefully before writing to me.
OFFICE HOURS
Office hours are held in Room 109 by appointment via email. Please specify in your email the reason for requesting an appointment. From September 15 to September 30, office hours may be held via Google Meet. From September 30 onward, office hours will be held in person in Room 109, by appointment via email, on Wednesdays from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
THESES
Given the high number of thesis supervision requests:

• requests may be submitted no more than 12 months and no less than 8 months before the graduation session in which the student intends to graduate. For example: for a March graduation, the request must be submitted between March of the previous year and July; for July, between July of the previous year and November; for September, between September of the previous year and January; for January, between January of the previous year and May;
• as always, there is a limited number of places available for each graduation session, and unfortunately it will not always be possible to accept new requests;
• the request email must clearly indicate the graduation session in which the student intends to graduate and the topic or author they would like to work on. Acceptance of the request is naturally subject both to the availability of places and to the possibility of agreeing on a topic that falls within the instructor’s research areas.

Once a thesis supervision request has been accepted:

• It is the student’s responsibility to check and comply with all requirements and deadlines concerning the graduation application. Please remember the paper required “for the knowledge of at least one foreign language” (information here); MA students should scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find the information relevant to them.
• The thesis must be written in accordance with the Sapienza style guidelines, using the “traditional system” for bibliographic references. Pages must be numbered. Layout and use of the Sapienza logo must comply with the University guidelines available here: https://www.uniroma1.it/it/pagina/impaginazione-della-tesi-e-logo.
• BA theses should normally be between 60,000 and 125,000 characters (including spaces, footnotes, and bibliography); MA theses should be between 125,000 and 250,000 characters (including spaces, footnotes, and bibliography).
• In the title-page template provided by the University, please remember to change the Italian masculine label “Relatore” to “Relatrice”; where applicable, “Laureando” should likewise be changed to “Laureanda.”
• The thesis must not contain an “Acknowledgments” section. Students who nevertheless wish to include acknowledgments must keep them extremely brief, no more than five lines, and use a degree of restraint appropriate to an academic work.
• The thesis submitted for discussion and/or filed with the administrative office must contain no material that has not been sent to the instructor sufficiently in advance and approved by her.

OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2026 COURSE
(FIRST SEMESTER, BA PROGRAM)
THE COURSE IS TAUGHT IN ITALIAN.
The course will begin on Wednesday, September 30, in Lecture Hall I (the temporary structure in the garden of Villa Mirafiori) and will continue according to the following schedule. The usual 15-minute academic grace period applies, except for the Friday class:
Monday, 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Lecture Hall VI
Wednesday, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. – Lecture Hall I
Friday, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Lecture Hall VI
The course has an associated Google Classroom page, and enrollment is mandatory for all students taking the course, including non-attending students. The Classroom page will be used to provide timely practical information concerning the course and, before examination periods, examples of exam questions.
To enroll, go to classroom.google.com, click “Join class” at the top of the page, enter the code qyad66g7, and click “Join.”
Course description
Through the device of the social contract, Rousseau seeks, in The Social Contract, to identify a form of political association in which each person, while joining with all others, may nevertheless obey only themselves and remain free. The problem of the legitimacy of political order is therefore addressed through the relationship among freedom, equality, law, and the general will. How can a common political bond be compatible with individual autonomy? In what sense can the people be the authors of the laws to which they are subject? What risks arise in the relationship among collective will, majority rule, representation, and individual freedom?
Starting from these theoretical questions, the course will place Rousseau’s The Social Contract in dialogue with several of Kant’s political writings: Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim, An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?, Toward Perpetual Peace, and On a Supposed Right to Lie from Philanthropy.
The works of Rousseau and Kant thus allow us to examine two major modern conceptions of political freedom. The first understands freedom as participation in a common political order whose citizens must be able to regard themselves as its authors. The second develops freedom through rational autonomy, emergence from immaturity, the public use of reason, and the legal construction of conditions of coexistence compatible with the freedom of all.
Required readings

1. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, Laterza, Rome-Bari, or another edition.
2. Immanuel Kant, Scritti di storia, politica e diritto, edited by F. Gonnelli, Laterza, Rome-Bari, 1995 and subsequent editions, chapters IV (Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim), V (An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?), XII (Toward Perpetual Peace), XIII (On a Supposed Right to Lie from Philanthropy).
3. Stefano Petrucciani, Modelli di filosofia politica, Einaudi, Turin, 2003, pp. 1–25, 33–220.

EXAM DATES
Exams will be held in Room 109, beginning at 9:30 a.m., unless otherwise indicated by the instructor. Exams are oral and take place in person.
Notice concerning extraordinary exam sessions: in accordance with University regulations, extraordinary exam sessions are reserved for specific categories of students. Students must submit a self-certification confirming that they belong to one of the eligible categories: students who are beyond the normal duration of their degree program; part-time students; students who have completed all required years of attendance; working students; students with disabilities or a diagnosis of specific learning disorders; student mothers and student fathers with children under the age of three; students holding athlete status; students simultaneously enrolled in two degree programs; pregnant students; family caregivers and young caregivers, subject to submission to the instructor of suitable documentation certifying caregiver or young caregiver status, such as the Caregiver Card issued by the Lazio Region or equivalent documentation issued by another Region; students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), provided that they are registered with the Disability and Specific Learning Disorders Service, which will then liaise with instructors; students graduating in the second graduation session (July graduations for the April extraordinary exam session) and fourth graduation session (January graduations for the November extraordinary exam session) of the 2025–26 academic year.
Students who do not belong to one of these categories are requested not to write asking for exceptions. 

• Winter examination period 2027: January 12, 2027; January 27, 2027; February 16, 2027.
• April extraordinary exam session: DATE TO BE DETERMINED. Eligibility for the categories listed above must be self-certified in writing. The 6-credit MA course taught during the same academic year and semester cannot be examined during this session; this session may be used only for courses from previous academic years.
• Summer examination period 2027: DATES TO BE DETERMINED.
• September examination period 2026: September 11, 2026; September 25, 2026.
• November extraordinary exam session: November 4, 2026. Eligibility for the categories listed above must be self-certified in writing. The 12-credit first-year BA course taught during the same academic year and semester cannot be examined during this session; this session may be used only for courses from previous academic years.

Opening and closing dates for exam registration on Infostud: registration must be completed through Infostud. For each exam date, registration will be possible from the “registration opening date” through the “registration closing date.” Students will be examined in alphabetical order. Given the likely high number of registrations, ordinary exam sessions may extend over several days. PLEASE NOTE: no new registrations can be added after the closing date for each exam, including upon individual request.
EXAM DATE | REGISTRATION OPENS | REGISTRATION CLOSES
September 25, 2026 | September 11, 2026 | September 18, 2026
November 4, 2026 | October 18, 2026 | October 28, 2026
January 12, 2027 | December 27, 2026 | January 5, 2027
January 27, 2027 | January 13, 2027 | January 20, 2027
February 16, 2027 | January 28, 2027 | February 9, 2027

Eleonora Piromalli è laureata in Filosofia e Studi Teorico-Critici presso l'Università di Roma La Sapienza e presso la stessa università ha svolto il dottorato di ricerca in Filosofia, con tesi in Filosofia politica dal titolo "La teoria del riconoscimento di Axel Honneth. Dalle sue origini a Das Recht der Freiheit", discussa nel giugno 2012. È attualmente professoressa associata presso il Dipartimento di Filosofia de La Sapienza di Roma, dove insegna Filosofia politica. È stata titolare di quattro assegni di ricerca annuali dal 2013 al 2019.
I suoi interessi di ricerca si concentrano sulla teoria critica della società, in particolare sulla Scuola di Francoforte, sulla democrazia deliberativa e partecipativa, le teorie del riconoscimento, il concetto di alienazione sociale. Su quest'ultimo ha recentemente pubblicato un volume per Carocci (Roma 2023) dal titolo "L'alienazione sociale oggi. Una prospettiva teorico-critica".
Altre recenti pubblicazioni, oltre a numerosi articoli in riviste e volumi nazionali e internazionali (tra cui "Philosophy and Social Criticism", "La società degli individui", "Journal of Deliberative Democracy", "European Journal of Social Theory"), sono la monografia "Una democrazia inclusiva: il modello di Iris Marion Young" (Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2017) e "Michael Mann: le fonti del potere sociale" (Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2016).
È membro del Collegio di Dottorato in Filosofia del Dipartimento di Filosofia de La Sapienza di Roma. Fa parte del comitato scientifico delle riviste "La Società degli Individui", "The Lab’s Quarterly" e "Philosophy and Public Issues", oltre che del comitato redazionale de "La Cultura". Ha ricoperto per anni l'incarico di tesoriera nella Società Italiana di Filosofia Politica, di cui è membro.
Tra il 2022 e il 2026 è stata Principal Investigator del progetto PRIN PNRR "Democratizing Energy, Energizing Democracy", e Responsabile di unità di ricerca nel progetto PRIN 2022 "Democracy, Sustainability and Wellbeing in Times of Emergency. Reframing Political Concepts and Institutions". È inoltre PI del progetto medio di Ateneo 2023 "Social Alienation in the 21st Century: Between Work, Politics, and Public Administration".
Ha partecipato come relatrice invitata a numerose conferenze, convegni e seminari nazionali e internazionali, e ha organizzato o contribuito a organizzare diverse conferenze nazionali e internazionali a partire dal 2010. Ha ricevuto numerosi premi e riconoscimenti, come il Premio Gioele Solari (2009) per la tesi di laurea specialistica, menzione speciale al premio Viaggio a Siracusa (2012) per la tesi di dottorato, il Robert Papazian Essay Prize (2015, terzo posto) per l’articolo "Authority and the Struggle for Recognition", il Premio Enzo Marchetti (2017) per il volume "Axel Honneth: Giustizia sociale come riconoscimento", il Premio Paolo Michele Erede (2019, primo posto) e il premio Bobbio +10 del Comune di Torino (2014) con la lezione "Il futuro della democrazia nel tempo presente". E' abilitata in prima fascia per il settore 14/A1 (Filosofia politica).