Aleš Debeljak was a Slovenian cultural critic, poet, and essayist.
He graduated from comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana in 1985.
Aleš continued his studies in the United States, obtaining a PhD in sociology of culture at Syracuse University in 1989. He was later a Senior Fulbright fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He also worked at the Institute for Advanced Studies Collegium Budapest, the Civitella Ranieri Center and the Bogliasco Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanitites.
During the Slovenian Spring (1988–1992), Debeljak actively participated in the democratization process in Slovenia. He was a professor of cultural studies at the Faculty for Social Studies of the University of Ljubljana.
He was married to the American columnist and translator Erica Johnson Debeljak. They had three children and lived in Ljubljana.