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Project Presentation

The conference Roma Sinica V marks the fifth meeting in the Roma Sinica series — a decade-long cycle of international conferences launched in 2017 and devoted to the study of cultural relations between East and West. Held biennially in alternating venues across Europe and Asia, the 2026 edition takes place at the University of Milan.The theme of this edition, Rhetorical Theory and Practice between Eastern and Western Traditions, draws inspiration from the comparative model proposed by George A. Kennedy in Comparative Rhetoric: An Historical and Cross-cultural Introduction (Oxford 1998), and aims to explore the plurality of rhetorical traditions within the dialogue between the Greco-Roman world (including its medieval continuations) and Asian cultures. The programme features four sessions of papers and one keynote lecture, alongside a poster section for early-career scholars.

Organising Committee

Chiara Torre, Andrea Balbo, Paolo Chiesa, Paola F. Moretti, Amedeo A. Raschieri, Matteo Rossetti.

Previous conferences

  • Roma Sinica I – Confucius and Cicero: new ideas for an old world, old ideas for a new world (Turin, September 5th-6th, 2017)
  • Roma Sinica II – Empire and Politics in the Eastern and Western Civilizations (Seoul, September 5th-6th, 2019).
  • Roma Sinica III – Languages of Science between Western and Eastern Civilizations (Pisa, September 7th-9th 2022).
  • Roma Sinica IV – Philia vs Amicitia. Between Aristotle and Matteo Ricci (Seoul, August 27th-29th 2024).

Published volumes

Roma Sinica. Mutual Interactions between Ancient Roman and Eastern Thought (Edited by Andrea Balbo and Jaewon Ahn, De Gruyter Brill, eISSN: 2512-8418, ISSN: 2512-840X)

  • Balbo, Andrea and Ahn, Jaewon. Confucius and Cicero: Old Ideas for a New World, New Ideas for an Old World, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110616804
  • Balbo, Andrea, Ahn, Jaewon and Kim, Kihoon. Empire and Politics in the Eastern and Western Civilizations: Searching for a ‘Respublica Romanosinica’, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110731590
  • Ferrari, Carlo, Guidetti, Fabio and Tommasi, Chiara Ombretta. Languages of Science between Western and Eastern Civilizations, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111308289

For the other volumes of the series, see the publisher’s webpage.

Other book series related to the project

Documenta Orientalia (Edited by Andrea Balbo, Francesco Stella, and Chiara Ombretta Tommasi, Pacini Editore)