Mary Dockray-Miller facts for kids
Mary Dockray-Miller, born in 1965, is an American expert who studies early medieval England and the history of women's education. She is well-known for her work on how gender was understood in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066.
She has written about female saints, the famous old English poem Beowulf, and women who lived religious lives in the past. From 2000 to 2024, she was a professor of English at Lesley University.
What Mary Dockray-Miller Studies
Mary Dockray-Miller focuses on the lives and roles of women in early medieval England. This period is also known as the Anglo-Saxon era. She looks at how women lived, learned, and contributed to society during that time.
Her First Book: Motherhood in Anglo-Saxon England
Her first main book, published in 2000, was called Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England. In this book, she explored what it was like to be a mother in Anglo-Saxon times. She used new ways of thinking about gender to look at historical facts and old stories, like Beowulf. At the time, her book was the first and only one focused on motherhood in Anglo-Saxon studies.
Other Important Works
Mary Dockray-Miller also helped edit a book about two important saints, Edith and Æthelthryth, in 2009. In 2015, she wrote a biography about a historical figure named Judith of Flanders, who lived from about 1031 to 1094.
She has written many articles for journals that focus on medieval studies, English studies, and gender studies. She also contributed to important reference books, such as the Historical Dictionary of Women's Education in the United States and the Dictionary of National Biography.
