BIOGRAPHY

Louis Patrick Leroux (BA, Ottawa, DESS, HEC-Montréal, DEA and PhD, Sorbonne nouvelle) is an Associate Dean of Research and a Professor who holds a joint position in both departments of English and Études françaises at Concordia University, Montréal.

His research spans from theatre to contemporary circus and has involved research-creation and cultural discourse analysis. He is founding director of the Montreal Working Group on Circus Research and regularly teaches at the National Circus School of Montreal. He has been a Visiting Professor/Scholar at Duke University, Charles University, Prague, the Centre national des arts du cirque in Châlons-en-Champagne, Universidad de Chile, Université de Toulouse and École normale supérieure de Lyon. He has also been an active speaker in Europe, North and South America, on the topics of research-creation, contemporary circus, Québec theatre and literature and interdisciplinary practices.

He has published a dozen books of plays, most recently: False Starts (Talonbooks), Ludwig & Mae (Prise de Parole; Talonbooks), Dialogues fantasques pour causeurs éperdus (Prise de parole). In the 1990s, he was the Founding Artistic Director of Ottawa’s Théâtre la Catapulte.

Recent and forthcoming scholarly books include: Contemporary Circus with K. Lavers and J. Burtt (Routledge); Cirque Global: Québec’s Expanding Circus Boundaries, with Charles Batson (McGill-Queen’s); Le jeu des positions. Discours du théâtre québécois, with H. Guay (Nota Bene), Estie toastée des deux bords : Les formes populaires de l’oralité chez Victor-Lévy Beaulieu with S. Dubois (PUM, in print); Le cirque social: son rôle, ses pratiques, pédagogies et ses aspirations with J. Rivard and M. Perahia, (PUL, forthcoming) and Réagir, créer, persévérer. La culture québécoise au temps de la pandémie with H. Guay and S. Bouliane (PUM, forthcoming).

His articles were awarded both national awards for exceptional scholarship in theatre and performance studies: the Prix Jean Cléo Godin (for an article in French) and the Richard Plant Award (for an article in English).

Dr. Leroux is a past President of the Société québécoises d’études théâtrales. He has been a SSHRC Leader since 2019. He was inducted into the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in 2017. He was elected on the College’s Executive for a first term where he held the International and Francophone portfolios. For his second term, he is currently the Secretary of the College as well as a member of the RSC International Committee.