October 10th, 2025 | University of Milan – Bicocca, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo, 1, 11:30 am CEST | 5:30 am EDT

The relationship between capitalism and liberal democracy—once grounded in social and institutional compromises that mitigated and regulated conflicts and tensions—now appears to be irreparably fractured. The experience of the United States vividly illustrates the erosion of the foundations that sustained that compromise, which upheld the separation of powers and the governance of consensus within a framework of shared rules. What emerges is the risk of a “divorce” between capitalism and democracy, as dynamics take hold that distort politics into autocratic and patrimonial forms. It is on this theme that Reset DOC has launched a process of reflection, which will commence with a lecture by Wendy Brown of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton on October 10 at 11:30 a.m. at the University of Milan-Bicocca. Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, Building U6 – Agorà, 4th floor–Aula Massa. 

♦ The event is open to the public, or you can follow the lecture online, here ♦

Welcome Remarks

Ivana Fellini

Director of the Department of Sociology and Social Research

University of Milan-Bicocca

Speaker

Wendy Brown

UPS Foundation Chair in the School of Social Science

Institute of Advanced Studies

Discussants

Giancarlo Bosetti

Exectuive Chair

Reset Dialogues on Civilizations

Fulvia Giachetti

Post-Doctoral Fellow in Political Philosophy

University of Milan-Bicocca

Leonard Mazzone

Assistant Professor of Political Philosophy

University of Florence

Paola Rudan 

Associate Professor of History of Political Thought

University of Bologna “Alma Mater Studiorum”

Chaired by

Marina Calloni

Full Professor of Political and Social Philosophy

University of Milan-Bicocca

Participant Bios

Wendy Brown is UPS Foundation Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ. A political theorist working across political thought, political economy, Continental philosophy, cultural theory, and critical legal theory, she previously held the Class of 1936 First Chair at UC Berkeley. Her research examines the powers shaping contemporary Euro-Atlantic polities, including neoliberalism, identity politics, state power, and the de-democratization of political culture. She is the author or co-author of a dozen books, including States of Injury, Regulating Aversion, Walled States, Waning Sovereignty, Undoing the Demos, and In the Ruins of Neoliberalism. Her current work explores how political freedom can be reclaimed in light of class, race, and gender subjection, as well as the climate crisis. Brown’s research has been translated into more than twenty languages and supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, and others. She has held visiting professorships and fellowships at Cornell, Columbia, Duke, the London School of Economics, University of Lucerne, and more, and regularly publishes and speaks internationally on democracy, neoliberalism, and global politics. She holds a BA in Economics and Politics from UC Santa Cruz and a PhD in Political Philosophy from Princeton University.

Giancarlo Bosetti is Executive Chair and co-founder of Reset DOC and the cultural magazine Reset. He was deputy editor of L’Unità and columnist for La Repubblica. He is editor-in-chief of Resetdoc.org and has taught Sociology of Communication at the Universities of Rome La Sapienza and Roma Tre. His publications include works on politics, media, and pluralism.

Marina Calloni is Full Professor and Chair of Political and Social Philosophy at the University of Milan-Bicocca. She holds PhDs in Philosophy and in Social and Political Science. Her research focuses on social and political philosophy, critical theory, gender issues, human rights, and citizenship. She is President of the Italian Society of Critical Theory, Director of the ADV – Against Domestic Violence research center, and has served as advisor to the Italian Senate on gender violence.

Ivana Fellini is the Head of the Department of Sociology and Social Research. She earned her degree in Economic and Social Disciplines from Bocconi University in Milan and her PhD in Sociology and Social Research from the University of Trento. Her research primarily focuses on the labor market and its transformations from a comparative perspective, with particular emphasis on changes in occupational and professional structures, evolving work practices and job roles within the service society, and the integration of immigrants into the labor market.

Fulvia Giachetti is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Political Philosophy at the University of Milano-Bicocca, working on gender cyberviolence in neoliberal societies. She holds a PhD in Political Studies from La Sapienza University, Rome. She is Director of Polemos. Materiali di Filosofia e Critica Sociale and editor of Studi Politici, and participates in international research networks on neoliberalism and critical theory.

Leonard Mazzone is Assistant Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the University of Florence. His research focuses on Elias Canetti, the sociology of crowds, philosophy of work, and critical theories of violence, power, domination, and emancipation, including related forms of solidarity and mutual aid. He is the author of several books and articles in Italian and international journals on these topics.

Paola Rudan is Associate Professor of History of Political Thought at the University of Bologna. Her research focuses on transatlantic political thought of the 17th–19th centuries, contemporary political theory, feminist political thought, and the role of migration and gender in labor transformations. She currently studies the relationship between women and new technologies and feminist critiques of techno-social relations, and regularly publishes and presents her work at national and international conferences.