• Dr. Leconte - originally from Lille, France - is a cultural studies scholar and an assistant professor for the French program at Trinity. He currently serves as coordinator for the French Studies program in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.

    His primary research investigates the rise of sport culture during modernity, which offered various cultural commentators, such as writers and artists, the perfect backdrop upon which to look deeply into human nature and rethink the role played by corporeality - the body - during the time period. He argues that cultural productions - literary or visual - using or referencing sports not only captured the cultural power of this new social phenomenon, but also translated sport's ability to be an agent of change within, and disruption for, French society as a whole by contributing to the transformation of France's understanding of social class, race and gender. Dr. Leconte also enjoys researching and teaching different forms of cultural production, specifically film and graphic novels, having published on both topics extensively.

    When he is not organizing events for the French Studies program or helping other divisions on campus, Dr. Leconte can usually be found reading, watching films, playing sports (badminton and soccer especially) or walking his two dogs, Wishbone and Clover, around San Antonio.

    • Ph.D, M.A, The University of Texas at Austin (2020)
    • B.A, Université Catholique de Lille (2012)

    Edited book

    • Sport in Paris: Retracing the Culture of Play and Games in the City of Light (1854-2024). Oxford: Peter Lang, 2025.

    Book chapters

    • “(Re)mapping sports literature in Paris during the Interwar Period”, with T. Bauer in Sport in Paris: Retracing the Culture of Play and Games in the City of Lights (1854-2024), ed. M. Leconte. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2025, 153-177.
    • “Le ring noir de l’écrivain-reporter”, with T. Bauer in Les champions “de couleur” entre mythes et réalités. La fabrique médiatique de l’altérité, eds. Dietschy, Gastaut, Rey and Tétart. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2024, 475-486.
    • "(Re)negotiating memory: Panama Al Brown ou l'Énigme de la Force (2017), the Black boxer and the French graphic novel,” in Intermediality in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels, eds. J. Baetens, H. Frey and F. Leroy. Lafayette: University of Lafayette Press, 2022, 127-146.

    Peer-reviewed articles

    • “Director, sportsman, auteur: Henri Decoin and the art of reflexivity in filmmaking”, with T. Bauer, The French Review 97.2 (2023): 35-52.
    • “The Summit of the Gods (2021): finding new heights for sport animation and transmedia storytelling”, with T. Bauer and J. Visioli, Sport in Society https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2022.2125384
    • “Un Trou dans le ciel (2016) ou la dualité réconciliée du boxeur de couleur noire,” Lendemains (Tübingen: Narr Franke) 45 (2020): 124-135.
    • “Cycling, cinema and social class: Breaking Away (1979),” with T. Bauer. The International Journal of the History of Sport 37.10 (2020): 838-852.
    • “Reexamining violence and trauma in the French boxing literature of the interwar period: Henri Decoin Quinze Rounds (1930) and Alfred Menguy Gueules Aplaties (1933).” The International Journal of the History of Sport 36.2-3 (2019): 207-224.

    • 19th and 20th French and Francophone Cultural Studies (printed press, film, bande-dessinée, transmedia storytelling)
    • Celebrity Culture, Stardom and Sport during Modernity
    • Theories of Selfhood, Corporeality, and Identity in Sport and Physical Culture
    • Sport Philosophy
    • Sport Architecture
    • Mass Culture, Leisure and Entertainment

    • French language (elementary, intermediate, advanced)
    • French and Francophone Civilization: La Bande-Dessinée
    • French and Francophone Cinema
    • Paris during the 19th Century: Arts and Literature
    • Sport and World Cinema

    Faculty Senate