Groarke, Louis 1953- (Louis Finbar Groarke)

PERSONAL:

Born July 18, 1953, in London, England; Canadian citizen; son of John Cuthbert (a high school teacher and newspaper editor) and Charlotte Marcella (a practical nurse) Groarke; married Marie-Andrée Glen (a professor and art historian), November 5, 1976; children: Sonya, Marie-Thérèse, Maureen, Philippe, Andrew, Hélène-Jane. Ethnicity: "Irish." Education: Colorado State University, B.A. (with high honors), 1975; attended University of British Columbia, 1975-76; University of Waterloo, M.A., 1991, Ph.D., 1996. Religion: Roman Catholic. Hobbies and other interests: Painting, drawing, long-distance running (former Canadian champion), weight lifting, swimming.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada. Office—Department of Philosophy, St. Francis Xavier University, P.O. Box 5000, Antigonish, Nova Scotia B2G 2W5, Canada; fax: 902-867-3243. E-mail—lgroarke@stfx.ca; lgroarke@yahoo.com.

CAREER:

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, teacher, 1991-92; Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, sessional lecturer, 1992; University of Waterloo, sessional lecturer, 1993-97; Wilfrid Laurier University, sessional lecturer, 1997; Okanagan University College, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, professor, 1997; Humber College, Toronto, Ontario, professor, 1998-2000; Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, assistant professor, 2000-01; University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, assistant professor; St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada, assistant professor of philosophy, 2002-03; York University, Downsview, Ontario, assistant professor of philosophy, 2003-04; St. Francis Xavier University, assistant professor of philosophy, 2004—. University of Toronto, associate fellow at Northrop Frye Center, Victoria University, 1999-2000, 2003-04; speaker at institutions throughout Canada, including Dalhousie University, University of Manitoba, Mount Allison University, and Université Laval; also conference participant and organizer. Worked as freelance writer early in his career; Benedict Labre House (homeless shelter for men), former director; also worked at a dairy farm and an optics laboratory; teacher of English as a second language.

MEMBER:

Canadian Philosophical Association, Canadian Society of Christian Philosophers, Canadian Jacques Maritain Association, Atlantic Region Philosophical Association, Ontario Philosophical Society, Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Winner of poetry contests, Colorado State University, 1975, Southern Alberta Summer Poetry Contest, 1975, and Canadian Author and Bookman, 1986; Milton Acorn Short Story Award, Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts, 2002.

WRITINGS:

The Good Rebel: Understanding Freedom and Morality, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (Madison, NJ), 2002.

Contributor to books, including Restructuring and Beyond: The Ethics of the New Economy, edited by Leo Groarke, Wilfrid Laurier University Press (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), 1998; and The Philosophy of History, edited by William Sweet, Ashgate Publishers (Aldershot, England), 2004. Quebec columnist, Canadian Catholic Review, 1988-92. Contributor of articles, poetry, essays, short stories, and reviews to periodicals, including Heythrop Journal, Maritain Studies, Public Affairs Quarterly, Journal of Value Inquiry, Humanitas, Ultimate Reality and Meaning, South Pacific Journal of Philosophy and Culture, Kinesis, Linacre Quarterly, Journal of Speculative Philosophy, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, and Poetics Today.

SIDELIGHTS:

Louis Groarke told CA: "My father was a journalist. I was initially a freelance writer before I went back to university and became a philosophy professor. Candidly, I was very disappointed in the quality of most academic prose. I write to inform a broad audience, to communicate lucidly, clearly, and as plainly as possible, without obfuscation. My style is more literary than most. I often consider the historical source of philosophical ideas in an attempt to retrieve or recuperate perennial themes in Western thought and apply them to contemporary debate. I hope to return eventually to some creative writing projects, including poetry and fiction."