DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN

Samuel Weber is Avalon Foundation Professor of Humanities at Northwestern and co-director of its Paris Program in Critical Theory.

Professor Weber studied with Paul de Man and Theodor W. Adorno, whose book, Prisms, he co-translated into English. The translation of, and introduction to Theodor Adorno's most important book of cultural criticism helped define the way in which the work of the Frankfurt School would be read and understood in the English-speaking world. Professor Weber has also published books on Balzac, Lacan, and Freud as well as on the relation of institutions and media to interpretation. In the 1980s he worked in Germany as a “dramaturge” in theater and opera productions. Out of the confrontation of that experience with his work in critical theory came the book, Theatricality as Medium, published in 2004 by Fordham University Press. In 2005 he published Targets of Opportunity: On the Militarization of Thinking, also at Fordham. His most recent book has been published in French under the title, Inquiétantes singularités (Disquieting Singularities). Translations of his writings into Chinese and Korean are currently in preparation. His current research projects include "Toward a Politics of Singularity" and "Difference and Alterity in the Writings of Derrida."

For 2021 two new books are planned: Singularity, Politics, Poetics, (University of Minnesota Press) and  three-volume edition of German writings, Aus linkscher Sicht ,”  (Vorwerk-8 Verlag, Berlin)

For more information on the work of Professor Weber visit Media Theory & Psychoanalysis & Philosophy