Brian Lefresne
GRA, University of Guelph
Brian Lefresne is a PhD candidate in the School of English & Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph where he is working on doctoral dissertation that focuses on the public, theatrical, and political performances of Sun Ra within the context of the American nation-state and the black diaspora. Brian completed an MA in Musicology (2005) and a B. Mus (2003) from the University Ottawa where he wrote his master’s thesis on the compositional techniques of György Ligeti. He has presented his research at meetings of the American Studies Association, Canadian Association for American Studies, and the Society for the Study of Southern Literature and has received grants and fellowships from the University of Chicago, Rutgers University, and the Association for Recorded Sound Collections. Brian’s other areas of interest include black artistic collectives, improvisation in public spaces, critical pedagogy, and genre in American Literature of the long twentieth-century. You can follow his research and his digital musings ion twitter @lefresne79 and on tumblr: leftatsaturn.tumblr.com