FAS is honored to have had an affiliation with Jacques Derrida. A crucially influential philosopher, Professor Derrida's wide-ranging consideration of a number of contiguous fields of inquiry changed the face of critical studies.
He authored more than forty essential works featuring his revolutionary theories about phenomenology, literature, psychoanaylsis, structuralism, legal studies, politics, pedagogy, art, photography, architecture and institutes of health and learning. His first book published in English, Of Grammatology (1976) is on Rousseau, Claude Levi-Strauss, and the metaphysics of presence.
An exemplary teacher, Professor Derrida focused on the margins of philosophy in order to show how the core of more mainstream types of thinking is sanctioned. His regard for the minoritized and marginalized earned him the respect of a number of entities in political and institutional life: women, minorities, the underrepresented and untenured. He was the mentor to some of the most prominent thinkers of our day, including Jean-Luc Nancy and Phillipe Lacoue-Labarthe, and his critically acclaimed book, Politics of Friendship, traces the future of the political to the possibility of a radically new friendship, a deeper and more inclusive democracy.
Professor Derrida is the subject of numerous critical works, philosophical books and award-winning films that attempt to grasp the meaning of the displacements he has effected in our relation to the world. Professor Derrida will be missed by the entire university community.