Introducing herself as "Metaphysics" during a chance meeting with Jacques Derrida, Avital Ronell established a persona that defined her trajectory through continental philosophy. Born in Prague in 1952 and later relocating to the United States, she bridged gaps between European critical theory and American academia while holding positions at New York University and the European Graduate School.
Academic Foundation and Early Influences
After graduating from Rutgers Preparatory School in 1970, Ronell earned a Bachelor of Arts from Middlebury College. Her formal training took her to the Free University of Berlin to study under Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacob Taubes, followed by doctoral studies at Princeton University. Under the supervision of Stanley Corngold, she completed her degree in 1979 with a dissertation focused on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Hölderlin, and Franz Kafka. Her engagement with French intellectual circles deepened through study with Jacques Derrida and Hélène Cixous in Paris, eventually leading her to translate various works by Derrida for American readers.
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Ronell held faculty positions at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Riverside, and the University of California at Berkeley, where she worked alongside figures such as Judith Butler, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. In 1996, she joined New York University, eventually serving as a professor in the humanities and departments of Germanic languages and literature. Her tenure included co-directing a transdisciplinary program on trauma and violence. Throughout her career, she chaired divisions for the Modern Language Association and participated in global academic programming, including an interview series at the Centre Pompidou.
Critical Analysis and Published Works
Her scholarship, which she often frames through the lens of a "signatory" rather than an author, addresses topics ranging from the telephone and Alexander Graham Bell to the disappearance of authority and the structure of legal testing. In her 1986 work, Dictations: On Haunted Writing, she applied anasemic reading practices to explore the relationship between Goethe and his companion Johannes Peter Eckermann. Her broader body of work, encompassing books on stupidity, childhood, and deficiency, emphasizes what she describes as the necessity of the unintelligible in contemporary thought.
Institutional Controversy
In 2018, an eleven-month internal investigation conducted by New York University concluded that Ronell had sexually harassed a male graduate student. As a result of the investigation's findings, the university suspended her from her academic duties without pay for the duration of the 2018–2019 academic year.
Fast facts
- Born: 1952, Prague
- Citizenship: United States
- Educated at: Princeton University
- Current Roles: Professor, New York University; Professor, European Graduate School
- Key Publication: Dictations: On Haunted Writing (1986)
- Professional Focus: Continental philosophy, literary studies, psychoanalysis
- Founding Editor: Qui Parle journal
Questions readers ask
What subjects does Avital Ronell teach?
She teaches continental philosophy, literary studies, psychoanalysis, political philosophy, and ethics.
Where has Ronell held academic appointments?
She has worked at the University of Virginia, University of California (Riverside and Berkeley), New York University, and the European Graduate School.
Achievements
- Held posts at European Graduate School and New York University
- Fields: gender studies
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