Avital Ronell is Professor and Chair of German and Professor of Comparative Literature, New York University, as well as a member of the faculty of the European Graduate School. She is a literary critic, feminist, and philosopher, perhaps best known as the "black lady" of deconstruction. New York University (NYU) is a large research-oriented university in New York City, and is among the most prestigious post-secondary institutions in the United States. ... The European Graduate School (EGS) in Switzerland is a privately-funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies (EGIS). ... Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... A philosopher is a person devoted to studying and producing results in philosophy. ... In critical theory and postmodernism, deconstruction is a textual occurrence thought to exist within Western systems of language and philosophy. ...

Career

Ronell was born in Prague to Israeli diplomats and was a performance artist before entering academia. She studied with Jacob Taubes at the Hermeneutic Institute in Berlin, received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1979, and then continued her studies with Jacques Derrida and Hélène Cixous in Paris. She joined the comparative literature faculty at the University of California, Berkeley before moving to NYU. She has produced English translations of Derrida's work. Prague (Praha in Czech) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ... The State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, transliteration: ; Arabic: دَوْلَةْ اِسْرَائِيل, transliteration: ) is a country in the Middle East on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. ... Berlin (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,387,404 inhabitants (as of September 2004); down from 4. ... Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the eight Ivy League universities, and is widely recognized as one of the most prestigious institutions in the world. ... Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher of Jewish descent, considered the first to develop deconstruction. Positioning Derridas thought Derrida had a significant effect on continental philosophy and on literary theory, particularly through his long-time association... Hélène Cixous, (born June 5, 1937), is a French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher and literary critic. ... University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a public coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California, USA to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate. ...

Works

• Stupidity, 2001
• Finitude's Score, 1998
• Crack Wars: Literature, Addiction, Mania, 1993
• Dictations: On Haunted Writing, 1993
• Telephone Book, 1989
• The Ear of the Other, (trans.), Jacques Derrida, 1989

External links

• Biography page by Diane Davis  (http://www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/Ronell.html)
• EGS biography page (http://www.egs.edu/faculty/ronell.html)
• Interview with Alexander Laurence  (http://www.altx.com/int2/avital.ronell.html)
• NYU faculty page (http://www.nyu.edu/fas/Faculty/RonellAvital.html)