Adam R. Rosenthal

I am an associate professor of French and Global Studies at Texas A&M University as well as Associate Editor for the journal Derrida Today. My research and teaching draw from my background in Comparative Literature and Philosophy to initiate urgent conversations between the humanities and the sciences. With training in French philosophy, literature, and theory, and experience in textual analysis and close reading, my scholarship explores the rich potentials of natural history and biological theory for literary studies. Of late, this focus has led me to ask how the history of life may illuminate questions concerning artificial versus natural intelligence, organic versus inorganic life, and the technicity of living systems.

I am currently working on two projects. The first, Archives Organic and Inorganic: The History of Life in Deconstruction, develops the implications of Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida's writings on history and the trace for understanding the relationship between life and nonlife. The second, Biophilology: Readings in the History of Life, argues that the life sciences are, at their core, philological disciplines. With this starting point, it attempts to realize a new biology, now as unrestricted philology of the living archive. In 2025-2026, I will be in residence at the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research with a Book Completion Fellowship for Biophilology.