Upcoming RGCS events
Coming soon.
Past RGCS events
RGCS Lecture: Tom Ginsburg, Law, Chicago鈥� a specialist in international and comparative constitutionalism. February 5, 2026.
Lin Centre Annual Lecture: Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton), a professor of sociology and law who is among the most influential scholars of the rise and fall of constitutional government around the world. March 19, 2026
RGCS Lecture: Emma Planinc, Liberal Studies, Notre Dame鈥� a historian of political thought (and RGCS alum) specializing in the 18th century, particularly Rousseau and the French Revolution. April 2, 2026.
10th anniversary of the Yan P. Lin Centre: addresses by two former members of the Centre's Board: Steven Pincus (Chicago) and Jill Frank (Cornell; 成人VR视频 BA '83 BCL/ LLB '87). Faculty Club. October 30, 2025.
- Jill Frank, 鈥淐rafting Order: Plato and the Shape of Democracy,鈥� 1-2:30 pm
- Steven Pincus, 鈥淭he South Asian Origins of American Independence: Empire, Political Economy, and Partisan Politics,鈥� 3-4:30 pm
Book launch: Multiculturalisme, imp茅rialisme et culture: Repenser les enjeux culturels canadiens 脿 l鈥檃une de l鈥檋istoire imp茅riale, by former RGCS postdoc Xavier Boileau. Librairie Le Port de T锚te, 269 ave. du Mont-Royal E.聽November 12, 2025.
: Daniel Lee, Political Science, Berkeley: 鈥淓xcessive Beneficence: Regulating Generosity in the Modern Natural Law School of Hugo Grotius.鈥� November 20, 2025.
Book launch: Disjunctures, by RGCS faculty member Yann Allard-Tremblay. Paragraphe. December 3, 2025.
RGCS Lecture Series and Debates
Sean Ingham, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California San Diego. 鈥淭he Democrat's Dilemma: A Theory of Institutional Forbearance and Democratic Stability.鈥� March 20, 2025.
Avigail Eisenberg, Professor of Political Science, University of Victoria. 鈥淢isunderstanding Self-Government: Laura Kellogg and the Corporation as a Self-Governing Community.鈥� February 6, 2025.
David Schmidtz, Presidential Chair of Moral Science, West Virginia University. 鈥淟iving With Purpose.鈥� October 24, 2024.
Richard Bellamy, Professor of Political Science, University College London. 鈥淭he Rule of Law As The Democratic Rule of Persons.鈥� November 7, 2024.
Kevin Elliott, Lecturer in Ethics Politics & Economics, Yale. 鈥淒emocracy for Busy People.鈥� March 14, 2024.
Joseph Carens, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto. 鈥淩eality and Political Theory.鈥� February 2024.
Emily Nacol, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto. 鈥淎 'More Onerous Citizenship': Political Theory in Plague Time.鈥� January 18, 2024.
Kevin Vallier, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bowling Green State University. 鈥淔rom Counter-Reformation to Counter-Revolution: The Early Modern Roots of Radical Anti-liberalism.鈥� October 26, 2023.
Ryan聽Griffiths. Lecturer in Political Science, 成人VR视频. 鈥淎dam Smith's 'Coarse聽Clay' Political Realism.鈥� Response by聽Shal Marriott. September 14, 2023.
Ryan Muldoon, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University at Buffalo. 鈥淗arnessing Diversity, Dynamism, and Discovery.鈥� April 6, 2023.
Asha Rangappa, Assistant Dean and Senior Lecturer, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University. 鈥淧residential Paradox: Reconciling Executive Accountability with Prosecutorial Independence.鈥� January 26, 2023.
Jonathan Rodden, Professor of Political Science, Stanford University. 鈥淧olitical Geography, Polarization, and Representation.鈥� October 20, 2022.
Sharon Krause, William R. Kenan, Jr. University Professor of Political Science, Brown University. 鈥淢ontesquieu, Arendt, and the聽Constitutio Libertatis: Relational Power, Plural Freedom.鈥� October 13, 2022.
Robert Sparling, Associate Professor of Politics, University of Ottawa. 鈥淏etween Corruption and Integrity: State Identity and the Paradox of National Debt.鈥� April 14, 2022.
Dale Turner, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto. '鈥淲ords are Deeds鈥�, Indigenous spirituality and the limits of language.' March 17, 2022.
All of the聽events in 2021 were聽delivered remotely due to COVID restrictions
- Melissa Schwartzberg, Silver Professor of Politics, New York University 鈥淐onstitutionalism and Local Knowledge: From the Black Death to COVID鈥� April 29, 2021.
- Richard Garnett, Paul J. Schierl/ Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor of Political Science, and Chiara Codelli, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, debating 鈥淢ust Churches Be Democratic?鈥� March 25, 2021
- Michelle Schwarze, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison: 鈥淪ympathetic Resentment and Injustice in Liberal Societies鈥� March 11, 2021.
- Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law, New York University, and "The Ethicist" columnist, New York Times Magazine: 鈥淲hat About The Workers?鈥� February 25, 2021.
- Teresa Bejan, Associate Professor of Political Theory, Oriel College, Oxford and Visiting Fulbright Chair, 成人VR视频: 鈥淓quality Before Egalitarianism.鈥� February 4, 2021
- Michael C. Munger, Professor of Political Science, Duke University: 鈥淚s Capitalism Sustainable?.鈥� January 21, 2021.
Helena Rosenblatt, Graduate Center of the City University of New York. 鈥淕ermaine de Sta毛l, Benjamin Constant, and the foundations of liberalism.鈥� November 7, 2019.
Kimberly Clausing, Reed College. 鈥淭he Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital.鈥� October 24, 2019.
Teresa Bejan, Oriel College, Oxford University. 鈥淓qual Speech (In Public).鈥� March 14, 2019.
Turkuler Isiksel, Columbia University. 鈥淲hat Rights Do Corporations Have, And Why?鈥� November 8, 2018.
Henry Farrell, Professor of Political Science, George Washington University, and Steven Teles, Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, debate 鈥淢arket Liberalism and Social Democracy: How Big Is The Gap?鈥� April 5, 2018.
Abner Greene, Leonard F. Manning Professor of Law, Fordham University. 鈥淭he Dilemma of Liberal Pluralism.鈥� March 22, 2018.
David Ciepley, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Denver. 鈥淭he Chartered Corporation as a Governance Technology: Colonial Empire, Constitutional State, and Business Firm.鈥�
John Ferejohn, Samuel Tilden Professor of Law, New York University. 鈥淒emocratic Constitutionalism: A Deliberative Theory.鈥� March 23, 2017
Leigh Jenco, Associate Professor in Political Theory, London School of Economics. 鈥淐hinese Colonial Discourse in Comparative Perspective.鈥� February 16, 2017.
Jack Jackson, Assistant Professor of Politics, Whitman College. 鈥淟aw Without Future.鈥� November 17, 2016.
Cecile Fabre, Oxford, and Eric Mack, Tulane. 鈥淒ebate: Individualism, Liberty, and Self-Ownership.鈥� March 31, 2016.
Jenna Bednar, University of Michigan. 鈥淏ottom-Up Federalism: How the States are Changing the Tenor of American Public Policy and Rights.鈥� February 4, 2016.
Phillip Lagass茅, University of Ottawa. 鈥淭he Drifting Canadian Crown: Institutional Change and Judicial Interpretations of the Monarchy.鈥� November 26, 2015.
Richard Boyd, Georgetown University. 鈥淚mmigration and Justice: Citizenship, Capabilities, and the Pitfalls of Exclusion.鈥� November 12, 2015.
Laurel Weldon, Purdue University. 鈥淭he Logic of Gender Justice:A Global Analysis of Women's Rights.鈥� October 29, 2015.
Jennifer Rubenstein, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Virginia: 鈥淏etween Samaritans and States: The Political Ethics of Humanitarian INGOs.鈥� March 19, 2015.
Erin Delaney, Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science, Northwestern University: 鈥淧recarious Power: Judicial Legitimacy in Comparative Perspective.鈥� November 6, 2014.
Donald L. Horowitz, 鈥淔ederalism for Severely Divided Societies: Possibilities and Pathologies.鈥� Thursday September 18, 2014.
Debate: Chandran Kukathas, Political Theory, London School of Economics, and Kit Wellman, Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis. Debate: "Should Borders Be Open?鈥� Thursday April 3, 2014.
Ilya Somin, Law, George Mason University: 鈥淒emocracy and Political Ignorance.鈥� Thursday January 9, 2014.
Naomi Lamoreaux, Economics and History, Yale University: 鈥淐ivil Society and Organizational History.鈥� Thursday, November 14, 2013.
Gerald Gaus, Philosophy, University of Arizona: 鈥淟iberalism's Unsuccessful Attempt to Insulate the Religious from the Secular.鈥� Thursday, October 24, 2013.
Debra Satz, Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society, Stanford University, and Matt Zwolinski, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of San Diego. Debate: 鈥淲here are the Moral Limits of Markets?鈥� April 11, 2013.
James Gardner, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad SUNY Distinguished Professor of Civil Justice, SUNY-Buffalo Law School: 鈥淪ubnational Constitutions and the Struggle over Constitutional Meaning.鈥� November 15, 2012.
RGCS Lecture: John Tomasi, Professor of Political Science, Brown University: 鈥淔ree Market Fairness.鈥� November 1, 2012.
Marrett Lecture/ RGCS Lecture: Leif Wenar, Chair of Ethics, King's College London: 鈥淥il, Dictators & Civil Wars: Our Contributions, Our Solutions.鈥� October 11, 2012.
Inaugural RGCS Lecture: Jeremy Waldron, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, All Souls College, Oxford University: 鈥淐onstitutionalism: A Skeptical View.鈥� October 4, 2012.
Other past RGCS Events
Geoffrey Sigalet (RGCS alum MA '11, postdoctoral fellow 2019-21), Director of the UBC Research Group for Constitutional Law, Assistant Professor of Political Science, UBC (Okanagan). 鈥淣otwithstanding Judicial Review." October 3, 2025. (cosponsored by the Runnymede Society and RGCS.)
Democracy and Design: Black Feminist Perspectives on Monuments, Clearings, and Fabrication. (RGGJ, cosponsored by RGCS). Papers by: Juliet Hooker, Shatema Threadcraft, Samantha Puzzi, Tr茅 Garnett, Deva Woodly. September 29-30. (Research Group on Global Justice conference, cosponsored by RGCS.)
RGCS reception at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. September 12, 2025.
Political theory in/ and/ as political science, Junior scholars workshop. April 24-25, 2025.
Manuscript workshop, William Tilleczeck (成人VR视频), The City and Self-Transformation: The Political Asceticism of Michel Foucault, November 15, 2024.
Manuscript workshop, Yann Allard-Tremblay (成人VR视频), Disjuncture: Indigenous Redirections in Normative Political Theory, October 27, 2023.
Manuscript workshop, Teresa Bejan (Oriel), First Among Equals, May 24, 2023.
Second annual Charles Taylor Lectures, delivered by C茅line Spector (Sorbonne), April 3-4, 2023.
Annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Montreal, September 2023, RGCS and Political theory in/ and/ as political science reception; and see .
"Power and domination" workshop (a joint manuscript workshop on Arash Abizadeh, Power, Subjection, and Democracy, and William Clare Roberts, A Radical Politics of Freedom, August 15-17, 2022.
鈥淭ranscending Settler Colonialism" conference, May 26-27, 2022.
First annual Charles Taylor Lectures, delivered by Philip Pettit (Princeton), September 19-20, 2019.
Sigal Ben-Porath (University of Pennsylvania), 鈥淔ree Speech on Campus,鈥� February 7, 2019.
Political theory in/ and/ as political science, May 10-12, 2018.
GRIPP Annual Montreal Political Theory Manuscript Workshop, Holly Lawford-Smith, Not In Their Name. May 24, 2018.
Wirth Institute for Austrian Economics workshop. March 24-25, 2017.
Peter聽Jaworski聽(Georgetown University), 鈥淭he Ethics of Immigration鈥�, Thursday, March 9, 2017.
Workshop on 鈥淩epresentation, Bicameralism, and Sortition: With Application to the Canadian Senate.鈥� December 9, 2016.
Annual Law and Religion Roundtable. June 20-21, 2016.
December 15, 2015: GRIPP manuscript workshop, cosponsored by RGCS and CR脡:聽Arash Abizadeh,聽Hobbes and the Two Dimensions of Normativity
October 26, 2015:聽RGCS and the Yan P. Lin Centre present:聽John Dunn, Cambridge: 鈥淒emocracy and Good Government: Geographical and Historical Disparities in Perspective and the Quality of Political Judgment鈥�, 3-4:30 pm, Arts 160
鈥淧PE as a method and as a research agenda.鈥� August 12, 2015.聽 David Schmidtz (Arizona), Mark Pennington (King's College London), Carmen Pavel (King's College London), and Michael Munger (Duke).
Daniel Kapust (Wisconsin). 鈥淎 Tale of Two Fears: Lucretius, Hobbes, and the Political Psychology of Peace.鈥� May 29, 2015.
Conference: 鈥淯ne 茅ducation affective, morale et politique.鈥� May 20-22, 2015.
Conference: Spinoza's Political Treatise: New Assessments. April 24-25, 2015.
Book Launch for The Structure of Pluralism by V铆ctor M. Mu帽iz-Fraticell, Tuesday September 30, 2014, Librairie Paragraphe Bookstore, 2220 成人VR视频 College Avenue
GRIPP Annual Montreal Political Theory Manuscript Workshop, Paul Gowder, A Commitment to Equality: The Rule of Law in the Real World. May 19, 2014.
Conference: 鈥淕lobal Justice After Colonialism.鈥� May 9-10, 2014, 成人VR视频.
April 18-20, 2013.
Tom Ginsburg,聽University of Chicago:聽鈥淩ights in Constitutions: Origins and Spread.鈥� Legal Theory Workshop, cosponsored by RGCS. March 1 2013, 12:30 - 2:00 pm, room 202, New Chancellor Day Hall.
History Department Graduate Student Speakers' Initiative: Karuna Mantena, Associate Professor of Political Science, Yale University: 'Gandhi and the Means-Ends Question in Politics', November 20, 2012, 5:30-7:00 pm, Arts W215, cosponsored by RGCS.
RGCS workshop, Detlef von Daniels, University of Witten: 鈥淗ow Plato Overcame the Cosmopolitans.鈥� September 20, 2012, noon-1:30 pm, Ferrier 422.
Book launch,聽Hasana Sharp,聽Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization;聽Robert Sparling,聽Johann Georg Hamann and the Enlightenment Project.聽 April 19, 2012.
Conference in honour of Charles Taylor '52, Professor Emeritus. March 29-31, 2012.
Charles Taylor at 80: an international conference
March 29-31, Mus茅e des beaux-arts de Montr茅al
A conference of the Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Philosophie Politique (GRIPP) de Montr茅al, the Centre de Recherche en 脡thique de l鈥橴niversit茅 de Montr茅al (CR脡UM) and 成人VR视频鈥� Research Group on Constitutional Studies (RGCS).聽Download final program
Charles Taylor 脿 80 ans: un colloque international
29 au 31 mars 2012, Mus茅e des beaux-arts de Montr茅al
Un colloque international organis茅 par le Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Philosophie Politique [GRIPP] de Montr茅al et le Centre de Recherche en 脡thique de l鈥橴niversit茅 de Montr茅al (CR脡UM) et le Research Group on Constitutional Studies de l鈥檜niversit茅 成人VR视频.聽T茅l茅charger le programme final
International Studies Association workshop:聽isa-ethics-2012.pdf
Conference:聽Spatiality and Justice: Interdisciplinary Investigations on the Political Philosophy of the City, May 5-7, 2011.
奥辞谤办蝉丑辞辫:听Security, Federalism, Democracy and the European Alternative, March 18, 2011.
Workshop: Health Inequalities and Global Justice [in association with the Montreal meeting of the International Studies Association], March 15, 2011.
Conference: Aristotle's Politics, March 11-12, 2011
Workshop on judicial review and democracy. December 3, 2010
Workshop with Mark Bevir, University of California, Berkeley: 鈥淲hy Historical Distance Is Not A Problem.鈥� December 1, 2010.
Dissertation-writing workshop, led by the RGCS' three winners of APSA's Leo Strauss Award for best dissertation in political philosophy: Arash Abizadeh, Christina Tarnopolsky, and Robert Sparling. November 26, 2010.
Workshop on Non-ideal and institutional theory, within the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, June 1-3, 2010.
Book launch for Christina Tarnopolsky, Prudes, Perverts, and Tyrants: Plato's Gorgias and the Politics of Shame, with remarks by Jill Frank, June 1, 2010.
Hegel After Spinoza: A Symposium, April 15-15, 2010.
Basic Income Group conference, March 15-16, 2010.
鈥淕overnance by the Principle of Subsidiarity: Successes and Challenges over 14 Years,鈥� Roberto Formigoni, President, Lombardy Region, Italy, May 15, 2009.
Alan Tarr, "Federalism and Subnational Constitutional Space,鈥� with commentaries by Erin Crandall and Filippo Sabetti, November 7, 2008.