Marc Lafrance, D.Phil.

Education

D.Phil. Cultural Studies. University of Oxford.

Academic Profile

The winner of two Commonwealth Scholarships, Marc Lafrance earned his Bachelor's degree in Sociology at the University of Ottawa and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Cultural Studies at the University of Oxford. He is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University, an Adjunct Professor in the School of Music at the University of Ottawa, and a Guest Professor in Media and Communications Studies at Örebro University. He has maintained an active research profile funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and has held research fellowships at the Rothermere American Institute (University of Oxford), Wadham College (University of Oxford), and the GEXcel International Collegium for Advanced Transdisciplinary Gender Studies (Örebro University).

Research Activities

Drawing on his background in both the social sciences and the humanities, Lafrance takes a critical approach to two key objects of enquiry: mass media representations and contemporary medical practices. In doing so, he explores how each of them is bound up with phenomena such as gender, sexuality, race and class; body image and body modification; identity and lived experience; and human vulnerability across the life-course. He conducts empirical research grounded in qualitative methods as well as more theoretical research informed by phenomenological, poststructural and psychoanalytic perspectives. He strives to conduct balanced and even-handed research and rejects ideologically-driven approaches to scholarship.

He is currently working on a variety of projects relating to his two key objects of enquiry. With respect to the mass media, he is examining heterosexual masculinity and emotional expression in popular music; violence against men in media culture; and the rise of online men’s rights activism. With respect to contemporary medicine, he is exploring the mind/body relationship in the context of reconstructive surgery; media representations of surgically-assisted body modification; and the psychosocial significance of the skin. He works in English and French, and collaborates with researchers in Canada, England, Germany, Norway and Sweden.

Public Contributions

In an effort to contribute to public debate, 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 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.