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Dorothy Bray

Contact Information
Phone: 
514-398-4400 Ext 00960
Email address: 
dorothy.bray [at] mcgill.ca
Address: 

McGill University Department of English
853 Sherbrooke Street West
Arts Building
Montreal, QC H3A 0G5 CANADA

Group: 
Faculty Members
Position: 
Associate Professor
Stream: 
Literature
Degree(s): 

B.A. (McGill); Ph.D. (Edinburgh – Celtic Studies), Associate Professor

Area(s): 
Literature
Medieval
Teaching areas: 

Medieval studies, Specialising in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon;Early Irish hagiography; Heroic tradition; Celtic folklore and mythology; Women saints and women’s spirituality.

Taught previously at: 

McMaster University, University of Durham.

Awards, honours, and fellowships: 
  • FCAC Bourse de recherche, British Council Personal Grant.
Selected publications: 

‘The Vita Prima of St. Brigit: A Preliminary Analysis of Its Composition.’ Narrative in Celtic Tradition: Essays in Honour of Edgar M. Slotkin. Ed. Joseph F. Nagy. CSANA Yearbook 8-9 (Colgate University Press), 1-15.

‘Ireland’s Other Apostle: Cogitosus’ Saint Brigit.’ Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 59 (Summer 2010): 55-70.

‘Further on White Red-Eared Cows in Fact and Fiction.’ Peritia 19 (2005): 239-255.

‘Miracles and Wonders in the Lives of the Early Irish Saints’ in Celtic Hagiography and Saints’ Cults, ed. Jane Cartwright (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2002): 136-147.

‘Malediction and Benediction in the Lives of the Early Irish Saints.’ Studia Celtica 36 (2002): 47-58. [published March 2003]

‘The Study of Folk-Motifs in Early Irish Hagiography: Problems of Approach, and Rewards at Hand.’ In Studies in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, ed. John Carey, Máire Herbert, Pádraig Ó Riain (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001): 268-277.

"Suckling at the Breast of Christ: a spiritual lesson in an Irish hagiographical motif." Peritia 14 (2000): 282-296.

"The Manly Spirit of St. Monenna," in Celtic Connections, Vol. 1, ed. R. Black et al. (East Linton, 1999): 171-181.

A List of Motifs in the Lives of the Early Irish Saints (1993).

"Secunda Brigida: Saint Ita of Killeedy and Brigidine Tradition", in Celtic Languages and Celtic People (1992): 27-38.

"Heroic Tradition in the Lives of the Early Irish Saints," in Proceedings of the First North American Congress of Celtic Studies (1988): 261-71.

"The Image of St. Brigit in the Early Irish Church," Études Celtiques 24 (1987): 209-215.

"Allegory in the Navigatio Sancti Brendani," Viator 26 (1995): 1-10.

Current research: 

Early Irish hagiography and folklore; Celtic and Anglo-Saxon literature and folklore; Heroic tradition; Women saints of early Ireland (St Brigid of Kildare).

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