Dr. Bren Lefrancois

Biography

Bren LeFrancois holds a BA in Psychology from McGill University, an inter-professional MA in Social Work and Nursing from Anglia Ruskin University (UK), and an interdisciplinary PhD from the Tizard Centre at the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK). Since 2010, LeFrancois has been a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where they have taught various courses related to social work. Prior to that, they were a tenured faculty member at Laurentian University and taught part-time at the University of Kent. Their doctoral research focused on children’s psychiatrization, power relations in child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric services, and they specialize in issues concerning psychiatrized children, Mad Studies, and critical children’s rights. LeFrancois's research interests further include social justice, sociology of childhood, critical childhood studies, critical disability studies, and social activism. They have published extensively, including books and journal articles that address the intersection of psychiatry, society, and the lives of children and marginalized groups.

Research Interests