Sebastian Luft studied philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. From 1994 to 1998 he was a research fellow at the University of Wuppertal, where he obtained his PhD. He was an assistant at the Husserl Archives in Leuven (1998-2002), after which he moved to Emory University (Atlanta) thanks to grant from the Humboldt Foundation. He has been a guest or visiting professor in Paderborn, Graz, San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Freiburg.