Marc Lafrance, D.Phil.

Education

D.Phil. University of Oxford.

Academic Profile

Marc Lafrance is an Associate Professor of Sociology, Special Advisor to the Provost on Campus Climate, and former interim Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. 

Research Activities

Drawing on his interdisciplinary background in the humanities and social sciences, Lafrance works in four key areas: (1) self, body, and society; (2) gender, sexuality, and popular media culture; (3) masculinity, health, and well-being; and (4) identity, ideological extremism, and political polarisation. He conducts empirical research grounded in qualitative and quantitative methods and is informed by theoretical approaches such as phenomenology and psychoanalysis. He strives to conduct balanced and even-handed research, rejecting ideologically-driven approaches to scholarship.

Lafrance has published over 50 papers in high-impact journals and book collections and co-edited two scholarly anthologies. He maintains an active research profile supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and has held research fellowships at the University of Oxford, Örebro University, and the GEXcel International Collegium for Advanced Transdisciplinary Gender Studies. He works in English and French, collaborating with scholars in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Public Contributions

Lafrance makes regular appearances in the print, radio, and televisual media. Named “newsmaker of the week” twice by Concordia University, he has been interviewed by or featured in daily papers such as La Presse, The Gazette and The Toronto Star; in periodicals such as MacLean’s, Men’s Health, and Vogue; in television shows and documentaries such as Adonis, Banc Public and Corps à la carte; and on radio shows such as The Current, Les éclaireurs and Médium large. He has also given public talks in contexts such as the Walrus Talks Lecture Series.