Paul Bouissac

Paul Bouissac (b. 1934) is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto (Victoria College) where he taught in the French Department from 1962 to 1999. Mr. Bouissac held also Adjunct Professorships at New York University (1980), Indiana University (1983), Universitas Indonesia (1992), and lectured on semiotic topics in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.  He received research fellowships from The Netherland Institute for Advanced Studies (1972-1973), the Connaught Foundation (1988-1989), and the Killam Foundation (1989-1991) as well as grants from the Social Sciences and Humanites Research Council of Canada and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.  His publications in English and in French include books, monographs, and articles dealing with the ethnosemiotics of the circus (e.g., Circus and Culture, 1976, 1985) and the semiotics of gestures, palaeolithic rock art, and animal communication.  He edited several volumes on semiotic topics including the Encyclopedia of Semiotics (Oxford UP, 1998).  After his retirement Mr. Bouissac developed an Open Source website for semiotic study (http://www.semioticon.com), which includes several journals online and information bulletins.  His creative writings are published in French: Les demoiselles (1970), and Strip-tease de Madame Bovary (2004.)