Jacques Derrida

Born and raised in El Biar, Algeria, Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher and an influential founder of deconstructionism. After serving in the French military, he studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris and then at Harvard University. From 1960 to 1964, he was a lecturer at the Sorbonne and from 1964 to 1984 he taught at the École normale supérieure. In 1983, he cofounded the Collège international de philosophie. Writing on Edmund Jabès enabled Derrida to theorize their common Jewish heritage.