ELEONORA PIROMALLI

Notice: If you wish to write to request thesis supervision, please READ carefully the “Thesis” section below before proceeding, especially the instructions for the first contact email.
Office hours: Wednesdays from 18:00 to 20:00 in room 124 (first floor of Villa Mirafiori), always by prior appointment via email. In your email, please specify the reason for requesting an appointment.

Theses:
Given the high number of thesis requests, starting from September 2025:

• Requests may be submitted no more than 12 months before and no less than 8 months before the graduation session planned by the student. For example:for a March graduation, the request must be submitted between the previous March and July; for July, between the previous July and November; for September, between the previous September and January; for January, between the previous January and May.
• As always, the number of available slots per session is limited, and unfortunately it will not always be possible to accept new requests.
• In the request email, the student must clearly indicate the intended graduation session and the topic or author they would like to work on. Naturally, acceptance of the request is subject both to the availability of slots and to the possibility of agreeing on a topic that falls within the lecturer’s research areas.
• At present, it is no longer possible to book theses for sessions later than January 2027.

Once a thesis request has been accepted:

• It is the student’s responsibility to check and comply with all requirements and deadlines for the graduation application (do not forget the paper “per la conoscenza di almeno una lingua straniera”; Master’s students must scroll all the way down the relevant Sapienza webpage to find the information that concerns them).
• The thesis must be written according to Sapienza’s style guidelines, using the “traditional system” for bibliographic references. Remember to number the pages and, in the title-page template provided by the university, correct “Relatore” to “Relatrice”; if applicable, do the same for the label “Laureando.”
• The thesis submitted for discussion and/or deposited at the registrar’s office must not contain anything that has not been sent to the lecturer well in advance and explicitly approved.

Exam sessions:
Exams will be held in room 124 starting at 9:00, unless otherwise indicated by the instructor. Exams are oral and in person.
Notice regarding extraordinary exam sessions: as per University guidelines, these are reserved for specific categories, membership of which must be self-certified by the student: students beyond the standard time to degree, part-time students, those who have completed all attendance requirements, working students, students with disabilities or with a diagnosis of specific learning disorders (SLD), student mothers and student fathers with children under three years of age, those with athlete status, students enrolled simultaneously in two degree programmes, pregnant students, family caregivers and young caregivers upon presentation to the instructor of appropriate documentation proving caregiver status (e.g., the Regione Lazio Caregiver card or other suitable document issued by other Regions), students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), after registering with the Disabilities and SLD service, which will liaise with instructors. Graduands of the II (November) and IV (April–May) graduation sessions 2025–26. If you do not belong to these categories, please do not write to ask for exceptions. I reserve the right not to reply to emails that disregard this notice.

• Winter session 2026: 14 January 2026; 4 February 2026; 18 February 2026.
• Extraordinary April session: 16 April 2026. THE DATE MAY CHANGE. Eligibility for the categories listed above must be self-certified in writing. Obviously, in this session students cannot take the 6-ECTS Master’s course exam held in the same year and period, but only exams from previous years.
• Summer session 2026: THE DATES MAY CHANGE. 3 June 2026; 25 June 2026; 10 July 2026.
• September session 2026: THE DATES MAY CHANGE. 10 September 2026; 25 September 2026.
• Extraordinary November session: THE DATE MAY CHANGE. 4 November 2026. Eligibility for the categories listed above must be self-certified in writing. Obviously, in this session students cannot take the 12-ECTS Bachelor’s course exam (1st year) held in the same year and period, but only exams from previous years.

Opening and closing dates for exam registration on Infostud: registration is done as usual on Infostud; you will be able to register from the opening date until the closing date for each session. You will be examined in order of registration. PLEASE NOTE: it will not be possible to add new registrations after the closing date for each session, not even upon request.

EXAM DATE            | REGISTRATION OPENS                              | REGISTRATION CLOSES
14/01/2026              |      27/12/2025                                               |      06/01/2026                                            |
04/02/2026              |      15/01/2026                                               |     27/01/2026                                             |
18/02/2026              |      05/02/2026                                               |      10/02/2026                                            |
16/04/2026              |       01/04/2026                                              |      09/04/2026                                            |
03/06/2026              |       18/05/2026                                              |      27/05/2026                                            |
25/06/2026              |       08/06/2026                                              |      18/06/2026                                            |
10/07/2026              |       26/06/2026                                              |      03/07/2026                                            |
10/09/2026              |       24/08/2026                                              |      03/09/2026                                            |
25/09/2026              |       11/09/2026                                              |      18/09/2026                                             |
04/11/2026               |       18/10/2026                                             |      18/10/2026                                             |

BA COURSE (L) — WINTER SEMESTER A.Y. 2025–2026 (October–December 2025)
THE COURSE IS HELD IN ITALIAN
The Political Philosophy course for first-year undergraduate students will begin on 1 October 2025 and will be held at Villa Mirafiori in Room I (located in the villa’s garden, on the Via Nomentana side, below the small hill). It will follow the schedule below, with the academic quarter-hour:
    Monday 16:00–18:00
    Tuesday 18:00–20:00
    Wednesday 16:00–18:00
    Friday 16:00–18:00
Information and course materials will be shared throughout the semester on the Classroom page with code i33fziws. Enrollment in the Classroom page, to be done with your institutional account, is required to follow the course (including for non-attending students). In case of problems enrolling in Classroom (and for any other questions or needs), you may email me.
    Go to classroom.google.com.
    On the Courses page, click Add → Join class.
    Enter the code and click Join.

Course outline:
The course offers the reading and commentary of the chapters in which, in the Leviathan, Hobbes presents his contractarian model and his conception of the absolute state. Through an examination of Hobbes’s arguments, we will highlight the principles underlying his political vision and the implications of his theory for understanding the relationship between the individual and authority. Hobbes’s political theory will then be compared with the democratic paradigm that Rousseau develops in the Social Contract, an work in which he seeks to find a form of association within which “each, while uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only himself.” Finally, the course will focus on Immanuel Kant’s Perpetual Peace, in which the philosopher, within his cosmopolitan proposal, takes up and at the same time transforms some key elements of the political philosophy of both Hobbes and Rousseau. Through the study of these three perspectives, the course aims to offer a critical overview of the evolution of modern political thought and of the different answers given to the question of the organization of power and individual freedom.
Format: Lectures combined with discussion of the topics addressed. Attendance is strongly recommended.
Prerequisites: As a first-year undergraduate course, there are no specific prerequisites beyond the general background acquired in secondary school.
Assessment: The assessment consists of an oral exam. The following will be evaluated (also during the course): Knowledge and understanding of the texts covered in the course, from their general aspects to details; in particular, students’ ability to engage with a philosophical text and to analyze specific aspects critically (1–15 points). Expressive abilities and command of disciplinary vocabulary (1–10 points). Knowledge of the historical context (with respect to the authors studied and to the history of philosophy in general) (1–5 points).

Texts:

    Thomas Hobbes, Leviatano, Laterza (any year), chaps.: Introduction, VI, X, XI, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI.
    Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Il contratto sociale, Laterza, Rome–Bari (or another edition), Books I and II.
    Immanuel Kant, Per la pace perpetua, in Id., Scritti di storia, politica e diritto, edited by F. Gonnelli, Laterza, Rome–Bari 1995 (and subsequent eds.) — or another edition.
    Stefano Petrucciani, Modelli di filosofia politica, Einaudi, Turin 2003, pp. 1–25, 33–220.

MA COURSE (LM) — SUMMER SEMESTER A.Y. 2025–2026 (March–May 2025)
THE COURSE IS HELD IN ITALIAN
The course focuses on four central chapters of Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment: “The Concept of Enlightenment,” “Odysseus, or Myth and Enlightenment,” “The Culture Industry,” and “Elements of Antisemitism.” Published in 1947, the work stands as one of the most critical and complex reflections on modernity. It examines the failure of Enlightenment to fulfil its own promises of emancipation, while also exploring the possibility of a radical self-critique on the part of Enlightenment reason itself—aimed at recovering its original and deeper aims of freedom and self-determination. To support the reading, the course includes the text La Scuola di Francoforte by Stefano Petrucciani, which will help contextualize the work and the philosophical tradition it belongs to, along with a volume on the history of political thought from the early twentieth century to the present.
Texts:

1. M. Horkheimer, Th. W. Adorno, Dialettica dell’illuminismo, Einaudi (any year), limited to the chapters "Concetto di illuminismo", "Odisseo, o mito e illuminismo", "L'industria culturale", e "Elementi dell’antisemitismo".
2. S. Petrucciani, E. Piromalli, Le idee e il potere. Il pensiero politico contemporaneo, Einaudi, Torino 2026.
3. S. Petrucciani, La Scuola di Francoforte, Carocci, Roma 2023.

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.
Al momento è 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).