In 1992-1994 he pursued his post-graduate studies in the Department of Sociology at Tbilisi State University, but left a standard academic career to pursue independent projects in Georgian and German literature: he has followed a non-traditional academic path for the past twenty years (2010).
In 2002-2005 he lived in Germany where he pursued his literary interests and studied philosophy, ancient history and sociology at Westphalian Wilhelms-University of Münster.
After returning to Tbilisi in 2005 Dato Barbakadze started the project XXth century Austrian Poetry, serving both as an editor and contributor.
Dato Barbakadze has been a member of Die Kogge, an association of European writers, since 2007.
His works have been translated into English, German, French and Russian.