Giorgio Agamben (born 22 April 1942) is an Italian political philosopher best known for his work investigating the concepts of the state of exception and homo sacer.
Agamben teaches at the Università IUAV di Venezia, the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris, and the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland; he previously taught at the University of Macerata and at the University of Verona, both in Italy. He also has held visiting appointments at several American universities, from the University of California, Berkeley, to Northwestern University, Evanston, and at Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf.
Agamben received the Prix Européen de l'Essai Charles Veillon in 2006.