Join us for a talk from the 2026 Fulbright Distinguished Chair, Diego Lazzarich.
Gratitude: A Political Reading
For centuries, gratitude stood at the center of the reflections of the most influential Western political thinkers, helping to shape and define the ethical and political spheres of entire epochs. It is only with the rise of Modernity that gratitude was progressively pushed to the margins of political theory.
What did gratitude actually mean for premodern thinkers? And why did it lose its relevance in modern Western intellectual and political debate?
This lecture seeks to offer some answers to these questions, while also reflecting on how little scholarly attention gratitude has received, despite its pervasive presence in the sources. On these foundations, it argues that gratitude can be fruitfully recovered as both a historiographical and a political category, also opening new perspectives on contemporary debates.
Audrey Wilfong
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