François-Olivier Dorais

François-Olivier Dorais, « Gaétan Gervais : témoin et agent d’une mutation référentielle en Ontario français », MENS Volume 13, numéro 2, printemps 2013.

In “Gaétan Gervais: témoin et agent d’une mutation référentielle en Ontario français”, François-Olivier Dorais explores the little-studied subject of the relationship between francophone intellectuals outside of Quebec and their communities’ evolving identities.  By focusing on Gaétan Gervais, a professor of history at Laurentian University and a central figure in the intellectual life of francophone Ontario, Dorais traces both the creation of a new intellectual sphere and the evolution of Franco-Ontarian identity from the late 1960s to the present. In this richly documented, cogently argued and elegantly written article, Dorais weaves together biography, historiographical reflection, and Franco-Ontarian social and cultural history.  In doing so, Dorais’ article not only looks beyond Gervais and towards broader questions of cultural identity since the 1960s, but it also connects Quebec historiography with that of francophones outside of Quebec.