Donatella Di Cesare is Full Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy and member of the Doctoral College. Since 2023 she has been a member of the SSAS (School of Advanced Studies) at La Sapienza. Her thought is located within continental philosophy (hermeneutics, deconstruction — Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer, Derrida), delving into the themes of truth and understanding. Her work has focused on the connection between time and language (Benjamin), considering the ethical and political issues of the other and otherness (Levinas). The Shoah has become central to her reflection. Having already contributed many studies on this subject, in the aftermath of the publication of Heidegger's Black Notebooks she questioned philosophy’s own responsibility towards the extermination. She has repeatedly examined the relationship with the figure of the stranger and the foreigner, also including the question of migration (Resident Foreigners 2020). On the borderline between biopolitics and political theology, she has analysed sovereignty and forms of domination (Spinoza). The challenges of violence, both visible and invisible, from totalitarianism (Arendt) to its contemporary forms (terror, torture,
war), pushed her to rethink bare life and human rights. She has called for philosophy to return to the pólis, by outlining the possibility of a radical thought capable of combining existence and community (The Political Vocation of Philosophy 2021). In recent years, she has outlined a critique of state politics, contributing to the reworking of the concept of democracy by outlining a radical thought that grasps its connection with anarchy (Democrazia e anarchia. Il potere nella polis 2024).