Marie-France Labrecque earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in anthropology from Université Laval before completing a doctorate in social and cultural anthropology at City University of New York in 1982. She was a Professor with the Université Laval Department of Anthropology for more than 30 years, earning the title of Emeritus Professor in 2012. Her many initiatives in the field were concentrated in Mexico as well as the Andes. Dr. Labrecque’s research initially focused on the class struggles of the Mexican peasantry from a historical materialistic standpoint. Subsequently, her focus shifted to the conditions of peasant and indigenous women, adopting a feminist political economy approach. This research—which continually strived to promote student training in the field—led her to specialize in criticism of international development, particularly in connection with the Gender and Development approach. This specialization in turn prompted her to take part in applied interdisciplinary studies leveraging participatory approaches to examine maternal and child health (in Peru), agriculture and livestock production (in Colombia), and food security (in Mali).

The whole of her academic work over the past 30 years has investigated what might be described as approaches to mobility, whether in terms of ideas (as in the case of international guidelines for integrating women into development or gender mainstreaming), capital and goods (as in the case of indigenous women’s labour in subcontracting factories, i.e., maquiladora plants), or people (as in the case of migration).

Her current research centres on crosscutting North-South dynamics, whether by comparing femicides in Mexico and in Canada or by studying Mayan temporary farm workers from the Yucatan who migrate to Canada on a seasonal basis to work in the agricultural sector. Although retired, she continues to pursue her research activities, working from an activist and feminist perspective. Dr. Labrecque is a prominent member of the international community of Mexicanists and Americanists and has been a visiting professor at numerous universities.