Famous French feminist to visit UF Oct. 9

October 5, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Hélène Cixous will return to the University of Florida campus to participate in a Jacques Derrida conference to be held Oct. 9-11.

The French feminist thinker, who first visited UF in 2003, will take part in “Who? or What? — Jacques Derrida,” celebrating the legacy of Jacques Derrida and his philosophy. The conference is free and open to the public.

Cixous is known for her writing on gendered languages, literary theory, and social and political issues. “For more than a quarter century, she has been at the forefront of intellectual debate and creative activity in France and internationally,” said Carol Murphy, director of the France-Florida Research Institute. “Her work reaches across many disciplines, including critical theory, women’s studies, history and theater. We are honored to welcome her back to UF.”

Cixous will present a plenary lecture at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 9 in Dauer Hall’s Keene Faculty Center. Other conference speakers include scholars from Leeds University, the State University of New York at Albany, the University of Southern California, Emory University and the University of California at Irvine. For a complete schedule of activities, visit http://www.gss.ufl.edu/derrida.

A philosopher, writer, playwright and activist, Cixous is also a professor of English and women’s studies at the University of Paris VIII, where she is the founding director of the university’s Center of Research on Feminist Studies — which was established in 1974 as Europe’s first doctoral program in women’s studies.

Along with Michael Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Tzvetan Todorov and Gerald Genette, Cixous also founded the University of Vincennes (now at St. Denis), a radical university that seeks to introduce interdisciplinary studies into postsecondary institutions in France. In 1970, she collaborated with Todorov and Genette to launch “Poétique,” a premier journal of literary criticism that is still published today.

The Derrida conference is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, the France-Florida Research Institute, the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, the Paris Research Center, the Department of English, the UF International Center, the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, the Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research, the Center for European Studies, the College of Fine Arts, the School of Art and Art History, and New York University’s French department.