This book provides a definitive account of Jacques Derrida's involvement in debates about the university. Derrida was a founding member of the Research Group on the Teaching of Philosophy (GREPH), an activist group that mobilized opposition to the Giscard government's proposals to "rationalize" the French educational system in 1975. He also helped to convene the Estates General of Philosophy, a vast gathering in 1979 of educators from across France. Furthermore, he was closely associated with the founding of the International College of Philosophy in Paris, and his connection with the...

Rethinking the university explores and develops key critical debates in the humanities (concerning, for example, postmodernism, New Historicism, political criticism, cultural studies, interdisciplinarity and deconstruction) in the context of the various crises widely felt to be facing academic institutions. The analysis of the characteristic features of today's university is guided by a close reading of Derrida's work on the question of the academic institution, particularly with regard to the motifs of leverage and disorientation. This important topic has been the subject of heated debate in...