Former Fellow

Elisa Piras

Postdoctoral Researcher in Political Philosophy, Sant’Anna School for Advanced Studies, Pisa (Italy)

Project title:
The Crumbling Public. Analyzing power dynamics within the public sphere

Research abstract:
The project aims at producing a sound theoretical study to investigate how pathologies of information and epistemic injustices have caused a blackout of the public sphere within contemporary democratic societies, making the formation of public opinion less predictable and ‘disconnecting’ the public from governments as well as from the information system, hampering the accountability and justificatory mechanisms that have been conceptualized by influential contemporary authors such as Rawls and Habermas. The argumentation will rely on insights presented by authors who have worked on public opinion at the beginning of the 20th century and it will present and discuss the main contemporary philosophical-political views on the pathological processes produced by power asymmetries and their effects on the public sphere – disinformation and epistemic injustices – in order to challenge/criticize the liberal accounts of the public sphere as a stability factor for a (just and stable) democratic political system based on dialogue and deliberation.

Events:
23 November 2021
Post-pandemic Frontiers of Global Justice
Lecture at the Colloquium Political Theory

  • Biografische Angaben

    Elisa Piras is Post-doctoral Fellow in Political Philosophy at DIRPOLIS Institute, Sant'Anna School for Advanced Studies (Pisa). She is didactic coordinator of the Master in Human Rights and Conflict Management. Her research interests focus on contemporary political liberalism and its international implications, theories of public opinion, history of political thought, security and gender.
  • Publikationen

    – “Se l’è andata a cercare! Violenza di genere, colpevolizzazione della vittima e ingiustizia epistemica”, Ragion Pratica, 1, 2021, pp. 251-272. – “Inequality in the Public Sphere: Epistemic Injustice, Discrimination and Violence”, in Democracy and Fake News: Information Manipulation and Post-Truth Politics, edited by Serena Giusti and Elisa Piras, London: Routledge, Chapter 2, pp. 30-39. – “Migration and Theories of Justice: a Critical Reappraisal”, Soft Power. Revista euroamericana de teoría e historia de la política y del derecho, vol. 6, no. 1 (2019), pp. 337-361.

News from the research center

Event
19.06.2026 | Frankfurt

„Dass niemand wirklich frei ist, bevor es nicht alle sind.“

Symposium

International Symposium in Memory of Jürgen Habermas with two international panels and a keynote by Axel Honneth.

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Event
17.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Agency Under Oppression: Feminist Perspectives

Conference

International Conference on agency, heternonmy and the current opression of feminist perspectives. Among others with Manon Garcia, Serene Khader, Regina Schidel and Francesca Cesarano.

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Event
22.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Rechtsextremismus und Polizei - Erscheinungsformen, Umgangsweisen, Perspektiven

Panel Discussion

Die Diskussion knüpft an den Sammelband „Rechtsextremismus als Herausforderung für Polizei und Gesellschaft“ an, der aktuelle Perspektiven aus Wissenschaft, Praxis und Zivilgesellschaft zusammenführt.

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News
18.05.2026

Videopodcast-Reihe „Our Planet, Our Health“ gestartet

Mit „Our Planet, Our Health“ startet eine neue Videopodcast-Reihe zu Fragen globaler Gesundheitsgerechtigkeit. Die Reihe, gehostet von Dr. Romina Rekers, ist eine Initiative des Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme (GHJ), gefördert von der Höppschen Stiftung.

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Publication
12.05.2026 | Online article

Disinhibited Informalization: Talk Radio, Bro Podcasts and the Aesthetics of Populism

This essay by Johannes Völz is a revised and updated translation of “Enthemmte Informalisierung: Talk Radio, Bro-Podcasts und die Ästhetik des Populismus,” WestEnd: Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 22.2 (2025): 3–24. It is published here as part of the b2o Review’s “Stop the Right” dossier.

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Event
25./26.06.2026 | Frankfurt

Shifting Regimes, Changing Orders

Conference

Conference as part of WDC2026 in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -forschung (DGTF), Kunstgewerbemuseum/Design Campus SKD and Design and Democracy

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Publication
22.04.2026 | Chapter

Körpergeschlecht und Selbstbestimmung

Britz, Gabriele (2026): "Körpergeschlecht und Selbstbestimmung". In. Mangold, Anna Katharina; Völzmann, Berit (Hrsg.): Gerechtigkeit als Thema der Rechtswissenschaft, Nomos, S. 41-48.

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Publication
22.04.2026 | Chapter

Festrede zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ute Sacksofsky, M.P.A. (Harvard), 4. April 2025

Schmidt, Rebecca Caroline; Forst, Rainer; Günther, Klaus (2026): "Festrede zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ute Sacksofsky, M.P.A. (Harvard), 4. April 2025". In: Mangold, Anna Katharina; Völzmann, Berit (Hrsg.): Gerechtigkeit als Thema der Rechtswissenschaft, Nomos, S. 13-18.

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