Tyrants and Dictators: Unjust Rulers in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds
Saturday 4 October
Hybrid conference: The University of Western Australia and online
Keynote speaker: Dr Erin Sebo (Flinders University)
Now open for registration online:
https://www.trybooking.com/DFDUE
A draft schedule is available here.
A poster is available here.
Call for papers
Tyrannical leaders and damaging dictators have been a part of history for as long as humans have formed collective leaderships. From William the Conqueror to the Medicis, leaders have been accused of tyranny. The study of leadership engrossed medieval, Renaissance and early modern thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, Niccolò Machiavelli, Erasmus and Descartes. The mythos of tyrants has been used and abused by modern political leaders to cement their authority and distort understandings of history.
The Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group Incorporated (PMRG) welcomes papers exploring themes of tyranny, political corruption, and abuses of power in relation to the medieval, Renaissance and early modern periods (or global equivalent). Possible topics include:
- legendary or fictional tyrants
- prescriptive writings on rulership
- megalomaniac secular and religious leaders
- just and unjust rulers or princes
- misuse of classical images or rhetoric
- dictators’ negotiating of power
- techno-feudalism in the context of historical feudalism
- the rise of faux-medievalism
- attitudes towards tyranny
- glorification of the medieval, Renaissance and early modern past
- reductionism and the use of philosophers to justify actions
We invite submissions of abstracts for 20-minute papers. We are also open to other forms, including shorter papers, panel proposals, roundtable discussions, and workshops. We particularly welcome papers from postgraduate and undergraduate students, early career researchers, and independent scholars in all fields. This is an interdisciplinary conference and we encourage abstracts from beyond the humanities.
Please submit the following to [email protected] by Sunday 24 August 2025:
- A 150–200 word abstract
- Your academic affiliation and title (if any)
- A short biography (max. 50 words)
- Whether you will be presenting in-person or online and, if the latter, the time-zone from which you will be presenting.
A copy of the call for papers is available here. A poster is available here.