Giorgio Agamben

Giorgio Agamben graduated from the University of Rome in 1965 with a thesis on the political writings of Simone Weil. While in Rome during the 1970s, he frequented with great intensity Elsa Morante, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Ingeborg Bachmann. In 1966 and 1968 he participated in seminars on Heraclitus and Hegel held by Martin Heidegger in Le Thor. In 1974 he lived in Paris and taught as Italian lector at the University of Haute-Bretagne, Department of Linguistics and Medieval Culture. He also maintained friendships with Pierre Klossowski and Italo Calvino. In 1974-75, thanks to Frances Yates, he conducted research at the Library of Wartburg Institute in London, and wrote his book Stanze, La parola e il fantasma nella cultura occidental, Einaudi, 1977. After returning to Italy, he became editor in 1978 of the Complete Works of Walter Benjamin, Italian edition, for Einaudi Publishers. From 1986 to 1993 he was Director of Programmes at the Collège International de Philosophie (Paris) and maintained friendships with J.L. Nancy, J. Derrida and F. Lyotard. 1988 - 1992, Associate Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Marcerata, Italy. 1993 – 2003, Associate Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Verona, Italy. Since the 1990s his research has been in the field of political philosophy. Through a rereading of the Politica of Aristotle and the writings of Michel Foucault and Carl Schmitt, he elaborated a theory on the relationship between rights and life, and developed a critique on the concept of sovereignty (Homo sacer, Einaudi, 1995). Since 1994 he has been Visiting Professor in various American universities. Nominated in 2003 as Distinguished Professor at the New York University, he resigned from this position in protest against U.S. government politics. Since November 2003 he holds the position of Professor of Aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts and Design of the University IUAV of Venice.