Erik Vogt studied philosophy and German philology at the University of Vienna, Austria; he received both M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Vienna, Austria. Before he arrived at Trinity in 2002, he had taught at US universities, at UK universities (such as Oxford University), and at the University of Vienna. He completed his habilitation in 2003 and was granted venia legendi for "Allgemeine Philosophie" from the Philosophy Department at the University of Vienna. He was named Gwendolyn Miles Smith Professor of Philosophy in 2011.

His main areas of publication are contemporary German, French, Slovenian, and Italian aesthetic and political theory.

He is the author and (co-)editor of twenty-three books, translator of additional eleven books, and author of 70+ articles.

His current research is on Peter Handke, as well as on the role of music, literature, and the fine arts in the work of Slavoj Zizek.

His authored and (co-)edited books have engaged with the works of Theodor W. Adorno, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Daniel Dennett, Jacques Derrida, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Mario Perniola, Jacques Rancière, Jean-Paul Sartre, Carl Schmitt, Gianni Vattimo, and Slavoj Žižek.

Other books have addressed topics such as: American continental philosophy; Austrian (cultural and foreign) politics; Austrian literature; the concept of monstrosity in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and literature; notions of (non-)aesthetic experience; the concept of genocide; contemporary Europe; philosophy of literature.