Diogo Pires Aurélio, GOIH (1946) is a writer and professor. He graduated in Philosophy from the University of Lisbon in 1972. The same year he left the country and moved to Brussels, where the UN granted him the political refugee status. Returning to Portugal in 1974, he worked as a journalist in several media (República, Jornal Novo, Diário de Notícias and Expresso) up to 1986. In 1979 he was appointed as Editorial Director of Portuguese Broadcasting Radio Network, holding office until 1980. In 1983 the National Print Office (INCM) hired him to design Prelo, a cultural magazine of which he was Editor in Chief to 1990. Meanwhile, he had restarted his studies at Nova University of Lisbon, from which he earned a PhD in Modern Philosophy, with a dissertation on Spinoza’s political philosophy, supervised by Fernando Gil, as well as the Habillitation in Social and Political Philosophy.
From 1982 to 2016 he was a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University of Lisbon, where he taught in the departments of Philosophy, Political Studies and Communication Sciences. Later, he was aFull professor at the Lusofona University between 2016 and 2020, heading the degree in Political Science. Since 1998 He has also been guest professor at the Institute for Political Studies, Catholic University of Portugal (1998 – 2023), where he lectured on History of Political Thought. Furthermore, he was visiting professor at the Universities of Santiago de Compostela (1989), São Paulo (1999 and 2001), Fluminense Federal (Rio de Janeiro, 2011), and guest lecturer at several other universities both in Portugal and abroad.
Besides his academic activities, he has been entrusted with several prominent civil functions, such as News Director at RDP (1979-1980), Member of the Board of the Portuguese Mint and National Print Office (INCM), 1989-1995; President of the National Commission for UNESCO, 1998-2002; Director of the National Library of Portugal, 2002-2005; Cultural Affairs Adviser to the President of the Portuguese Republic, 2006-2016.
His work includes poetry, literary criticism, essays and scientific studies in the areas of philosophy, politics, literature and communication. He is the author, co-author or editor of manny books and articles. Moreover he translated into Portuguese the main works of Baruch Spinoza, as well The Prince, by Machavelli, all of them being published both in Portugal and Brazil. In 2009, he was awarded the Prize for Scientific and Technical Translation into Portuguese Language from União Latina and Portuguese Foundation for Science Research and Technology, as welll as an Honourable Mention.
D. P. Aurélio was the series editor of Clássicos da Política, published by Círculo de Leitores, Currently, his work is focused on some concepts such as people, representation, state and sovereignty, as well as their relevance for understanding politics in modern times.
In 2016 he was honoured with the title of Grande Oficial da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique (GOIH). The same year, the Grémio Literário promoted a session devoted to his work.
On 28 September 2017, on the occasion of his retirement, he was honoured by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and delivered his valecditory lesson, entitled «Images without model: portraits of the people in representative democracy».