Avital Ronell studied at the Hermeneutics Institute in Berlin with Jacob Taubes, earned her doctorate at Princeton University, and then worked with Jacques Derrida and Hélène Cixous in Paris. As one of the first translators of Jacques Derrida’s work into English, she in effect introduced his work to the American academy. She is a professor of English, German and Comparative Literature at New York University and teaches literature at the European Graduate School. Avital Ronell’s work, thoroughly transdisciplinary, consistently slips the bounds of traditional academic castes, earning her accolades from often disparate spheres of the cultural milieu. She is the author of The Test Drive and of The Telephone Book.