Faculty Profile: Erik Vogt

Erik Vogt
Gwendolyn Miles Smith Professor of Philosophy
Phone: (860) 297-4095	Office Location: McCook 316
Send e-mail to Erik Vogt
Trinity College faculty member since 2002	View office hours for Fall 2026

Degrees:

Univ.-Doz., Univ. of Vienna, Austria
Ph.D., Univ. of Vienna, Austria
M.A., Univ. of Vienna, Austria

Author/(co-)editor of 26 books; author of 90+ published and forthcoming articles and book chapters; translator of 11 books and of 100+ articles from 70+ different authors; some of his work has been translated into 8 languages. He has served as first/second adviser and external reader of dozens of doctoral dissertations (and also master's theses) on both sides of the Atlantic.

Most recent publication: Peter Handkes literarische Romantik (December 2024); Alain Badiou und die Künste (together with Michael Zangerl; December 2025); Biopolitik in der Kunst. Transkulturelle Konstellationen in der Ästhetik (together with Gerhard Unterthurner and Christian Sorace; November 2026).

Current research:

1. Monograph on Elfriede Jelinek examining the ways in which Jelinek's (conception of) literature can be read as disarticulation of the romantic phantasmagoria of "große Kunst/Dichtung" that has often figured as the foundation for nationalist and exclusionary political projects in Austria and Germany. Texts such as Wolken.Heim, Totenauberg and several others address Martin Heidegger's (and others') account of the relationship between language, Dichtung (as "Ur-Sprache des deutschen Volkes"), earth, and politics, and they perform Überschreibungen of Heidegger's "racinated" mytheme of language as Mahnmale against current identitarian discourses in Europe, in the US, and in Russia. Publication date is expected for 2027.

2. Volume (co-edited with Michael Zangerl) focusing on the work of the eminent French thinker Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and examines his significant contributions to literature, the arts, psychoanalysis, and politics. It is scheduled for publication in late 2027.

Courses taught:

PHIL-217	Philosophy and Literature
PHIL-288	Modern Philosophy
PHIL-328	Freud
PHIL-336	Foucault
PHIL-341	Philosophy and Revolution
PHIL-351	Aesthetics

Research Interests:

20th Century and Contemporary German, French, Italian, Slovene Philosophy.
Aesthetics and (Austrian) Literature; Antisemitism, Biopolitics, Europe, Genocide, Monstrosity, Racism.
Theodor W. Adorno; Giorgio Agamben; Alain Badiou; Jean Baudrillard; Thomas Bernhard; Paul Celan; Daniel Dennett; Jacques Derrida; Frantz Fanon; Michel Foucault; David Grossman; Boris Groys; Peter Handke; Hugo von Hoffmansthal; Elfriede Jelinek;
Franz Kafka; Ernesto Laclau; Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe; Jean-Francois Lyotard; Mario Perniola; Jacques Rancière; Jean-Paul Sartre; Carl Schmitt; Gianni Vattimo; Richard Wagner; Slavoj Žižek.

GUEST PROFESSORSHIPS:

Visiting Professor of German, Department of German Studies, Wesleyan University (CT, USA), Spring 2026.

LFUI Research Guest Professor, Department of Comparative Literature (and also supported by the Department of Philosophy), Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck, (Tyrol, Austria), Fall 2025.

Visiting Professor, Department of MultiMediaArt, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, (Salzburg, Austria), 2016 - 2021.

Privat-Dozent, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, (Vienna, Austria), Spring 2004 - present.

Guest Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna (Vienna, Austria), Spring 2001.

TEACHING AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS:

Thomas Church Brownell Prize for Teaching Excellence, Trinity College (2021)

Appointed Gwendolyn Miles Smith Professor for Philosophy, Trinity College (2011)

Listed in Austrian Magazine "Format" among the "most important 25 Austrian scientists under 40 years of age working outside Austria" (2004).

Habilitation with venia legendi (Priv.-Doz.) for "Allgemeine Philosophie", University of Vienna, 2003.

Faculty Excellence Award for Excellence in Advising (Philosophy Club), Loyola University (1998)

RESEARCH AND TRANSLATIONS GRANTS (totaling over USD 100,000):

Research Grant, FWF (Austrian Science Fund)

Literature Grant, City of Vienna

Multiple Research Grants, University of Vienna.

Translation Grants, Loyola University.