Dr Dominic Standish will lead a discussion on the past, present and future of republican ideals, in Venice.

The Venetian Republic was a model of the early republican idea of freedom until Napoleon captured it in 1797. The historian David Rosand described the Republic's impact on political thought in Europe and America: 'More than any other political entity of the early modern period, the Republic of Venice shaped the visual imagination of political thought; just as she instructed Europe – and, ultimately, the independent colonies of America – in the idea of statehood, so she taught how to give that idea eloquent pictorial form, especially through the figuration of the state.'

France and America took up the mantle of republican freedom as the Venetian Republic went into decline and fell. But what has become of republicanism today? Regulation of social life seems to be growing in Venice, and in other parts of Italy. Can America or France still champion freedom? What role can we play?

Location: De Marchi Room, Filipin Institute, Iowa University/CIU Undergraduate Campus, Paderno del Grappa, Veneto, Italy.

Date: 24 September

Time: 16.50-18.45