Philosopher, critic, punk and performer, Avital Ronell is currently Professor of German, Comparative Literature and English at New York University, where she codirects the Trauma and Violence Transdisciplinary Studies Program and the Jacques Derrida Professor of Media and Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fe, Switzerland. A prolific writer, with a dazzling array of titles to her name, she has long been concerned with the questions of authority and authorship that surface in the present publication. Her most recent book on the subject, Loser Sons: Politics and Authority, was published earlier this year by the University of Illinois Press. Other notable titles include The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech (University of Nebraska Press, 1989); Stupidity (2002); Crack Wars: Literature Addiction Mania (2004); and Fighting Theory: In Conversation with Anne Dufourmantelle (2010), all University of Illinois Press. Ronell’s works have been translated into numerous languages and she herself was one of the first translators into English of the work of her illustrious professor and dear friend, Jacques Derrida (1930 – 2004).