The dispute that sparked the University of California at Irvine’s legal wrangles over Jacques Derrida’s papers apparently stems from the late philosopher’s efforts to derail a sexual-harassment case against a colleague there, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday. The university sued Derrida’s family last fall over the ultimate disposition of the papers, many of which are housed at Irvine, but announced last week that it planned to drop the lawsuit and resume negotiations with the family.
Sources told the Times that in 2004, as he was dying of pancreatic cancer, Derrida wanted Irvine to halt its investigation of a Russian-studies professor who was accused of sexually harassing a female doctoral student, and tried to use his archives as leverage. University officials would not comment.
