Christine Buci-Glucksmann is a philosopher, professor emerita of the University of Paris VIII, and the author of many books in the fields of political philosophy, aesthetics, contemporary art, the baroque, ornament, Asian art, and virtual art. Her most recent works include Esthétique de l’éphémère (2003), Au-delà de la mélancholie (2005), Philosophie de l’ornement: D’Orient en Occident (2008), and Une femme philosophe (2008). Two of her books have previously been translated into English: Gramsci and the State (1980) and Baroque Reason: The Aesthetics of Modernity (1994).