Giorgio Agamben

Giorgio Agamben was born in Rome in 1942. He studied law there, along with literature and philosophy. Seminars with Martin Heidegger in 1966 and 1968 provided a decisive impetus for his philosophical career. Agamben held professorships in aesthetics in Macerata, Verona, and Venice, and was Directeur de Programme at the Collège international de philosophie in Paris. As editor of the Italian edition of Walter Benjamin’s writings, he rediscovered several manuscripts believed to have been lost. His best-known works include the multi-volume Homo Sacer series, which examines the relationship between law, politics, and life. In 2006 he received the Prix Européen de l’Essai Charles Veillon, and in 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.