Silvia Ronchey
Historian and writer
Full Professor at the University of Rome 3
Fellow of the Dumbarton Oaks Institute in Washington, D.C. (Harvard University Trustees)
Columnist for La Repubblica
Commentator for La7
Main Topics:
Current geopolitical tensions have brought to light the importance of issues with ancient roots, such as the confrontation between East and West, the cultural roots of the West itself, and the divisions that arise from them, as well as the historical significance of confrontations between peoples and powers. Below are some examples:
- Ancient and new geopolitics of the Mediterranean
- The doctrine of empires from antiquity to the New World Order
- First, Second and Third Rome: Rome, Constantinople, Moscow
- East and West: trade routes, migration of peoples, and exchange of civilisations
- Autocracy, democracy and meritocracy: the historical cycles of the ruling classes
- Female knowledge and power throughout history
- Paganism, Eastern philosophies and the environment as a secular religion
- Knowledge of the Classics: Using the Past to Understand the Present
- Renaissance and New Renaissance: the transmission of knowledge and European identity
Professional Profile:
Ronchey is a Full Professor at the University of Rome 3. Previously, she taught at the University of Siena and was a Fellow, Harvard Officer and Fulbright Scholar at the Dumbarton Oaks Institute for Byzantine Studies in Washington, D.C., as well as a researcher at the Collège de France in Paris. She has also been a visiting scholar and visiting professor at several international universities, including Oxford University, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Universität zu Köln, the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, the Saint Petersburg State University and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She is an honorary member of the Philological Society ‘Parnassos’ (Athens) and the National Society of Greek Writers.
In addition to writing more than 150 specialist essays, she has authored several award-winning and widely read books that have been translated into multiple languages, including: The Byzantine State (Einaudi, winner of the Capalbio Prize and Finale Ligure Prize); The Enigma of Piero (Rizzoli, winner of the Elsa Morante Prize, Bevilacqua Prize and Montefeltro Prize); The Novel of Constantinople (Einaudi, winner of the De Lollis Prize and Roma Prize); The Story of Barlaam and Ioasaf. The Byzantine Life of Buddha (Einaudi); The Submerged Cathedral: In Search of the Lost Sacred (Rizzoli); and Hypatia: The True Story (Rizzoli, winner of the Teocle Prize, Città delle Rose Prize, Pisa Prize). Her long collaboration with James Hillman has resulted in three volumes, the latest of which, The Last Image (Rizzoli), won the Viareggio Prize.
Ronchey is a long-standing contributor to La Repubblica and its cultural supplement, Robinson. She is a regular guest on the programme Dimartedì (La7).
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