Hélène Cixous was born in 1937 in Oran, Algeria, and has been living in France since she was 18. After earning a university degree, she taught at various universities in Bordeaux and Paris. In 1968 she earned her doctorate with a dissertation on "L'exile de James Joyce ou l'art du remplacement" (James Joyce's exile or the art of replacing).

Following the student protests in France at the end of the 1960s, Hélène Cixous was a co-founder of an experimental academic center in Vincennes, a town in the metropolitan area of Paris. This center evolved into Université Paris 8, where Hélène Cixous teaches to this day. During the mid-1970s she founded a center for feminist studies there, which was the first of its kind in Europe. Hélène Cixous has written numerous novels, essays, plays, and poetry. One of her best-known and most influential essays is Le Rire de la Méduse (The Laughter of Medusa), written in 1975. Cixous was awarded the French National Order of Merit, the Ordre national du Mérite. She is the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates from universities in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

The Dahlem Humanities Center builds on the most complete range of disciplines in the humanities to be found in Germany. The highlight of the Center’s public activities is the annual Hegel Lecture. Previous speakers include Slavoj Žižek, Judith Butler, and André Glucksmann.

This year, for the first time, on the day following the Hegel Lecture, there will be a workshop organized jointly by students and the guest lecturer that deals with a similar theme. This year's workshop is entitled "Sexual Differences: Write – Read – Translate."

Time and Location of the Hegel Lecture

• May 11, 2016, 6:30 p.m.; the doors will open at 5:45 p.m.
• Freie Universität Berlin, Henry Ford Building, Max Kade Auditorium, Garystraße 35, 14195 Berlin-Dahlem; subway station: Thielplatz (U3)
• Link to further information about the Hegel Lecture and the workshop: www.fu-berlin.de/en/dhc

Contact

Katja Heinrich, Managing Director and Academic Coordinator, Dahlem Humanities Center, Freie Universität Berlin, Tel.: +49 30 838-55057, Email: k.heinrich@fu-berlin.de