Julia Bray
{{Short description|British scholar of Oriental studies (born 1952)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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| name = Julia Bray
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|28 September 1952}}
| birth_place = Cambridge, England
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| education = Collège Sévigné
| alma_mater = St Hilda's College, Oxford
St Cross College, Oxford
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| discipline = Oriental studies
| sub_discipline = {{hlist|Arabic literature}}
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- University of Manchester
- University of Edinburgh
- Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford
- St Antony's College, Oxford
- University of St Andrews
- University of Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis
- St John's College, Oxford }}
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Julia Margaret Bray (born 28 September 1952) is a British scholar of Oriental studies who specialises in Medieval to Early Modern Arabic literature.{{cite web |title=Julia Bray |url=http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/staff/iw/jbray.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713181447/http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/staff/iw/jbray.html |archive-date=13 July 2017 |accessdate=12 August 2014 |website=Faculty of Oriental Studies |publisher=University of Oxford}}{{cite web|title=Editors|url=http://www.libraryofarabicliterature.org/editors/|website=People|publisher=Library of Arabic Literature|accessdate=12 August 2014}} From 2012 to 2023, she was the Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. She previously taught Arabic and Arabic literature at the universities of Manchester, Edinburgh and St Andrews, and was Professeur de littérature arabe médiévale at the Paris 8 University from 2003 to 2012.
Early life and education
Bray was born on 28 September 1952 in Cambridge, England. She was educated at the Collège Sévigné, an all-girls private school in Paris, France. She read Oriental Studies at St Hilda's College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1974. After working as an archivist, she studied for a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree at St Cross College, Oxford. She completed her DPhil in 1984.{{cite web |date=1 December 2022 |title=Bray, Prof. Julia Margaret, (born 28 Sept. 1952) |url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U257435 |access-date=10 July 2021 |website=Who's Who 2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U257435}}
Academic career
In 1983, Bray joined the University of Manchester as a lecturer in Arabic. She was then a senior lecturer in Arabic at the University of Edinburgh from 1989 to 1992. She was a visiting lecturer at St Antony's College, Oxford for the 1994/95 academic year, and James Mew Senior Research Fellow in Arabic in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, from 1994 to 1996. She was senior lecturer in Arabic at the University of St Andrews from 1996 to 2003, and then Professeur de littérature arabe médiévale at the University of Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis from 2003 to 2012.
Since September 2012, she has been the Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford.{{cite web|title=Laudian Professorship of Arabic|url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2011-2012/31may2012-no4991/notices/#73040|website=Notices|publisher=University of Oxford|accessdate=12 August 2014|date=31 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203005246/http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2011-2012/31may2012-no4991/notices/#73040|archive-date=3 December 2012|url-status=dead}} She is also a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. She co-edits (with Wen-chin Ouyang) the Edinburgh Studies in Classical Arabic Literature monograph series, published by Edinburgh University Press.{{cite web|title=Professor Julia Bray|url=https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/368-4548/Professor-Julia-Bray.html|website=Fellows & Staff|publisher=University of Oxford|accessdate=22 February 2015}} The chair was renamed the Abdulaziz Saud AlBabtain Laudian Professorship of Arabic in after a re-endowment in 2016.{{cite web |title=Professorship in Arabic (Abdulaziz Saud AlBabtain Laudian Professorship) job with University of Oxford {{!}} 339973 |url=https://jobs.chronicle.com/job/339973/professorship-in-arabic-abdulaziz-saud-albabtain-laudian-professorship-/ |website=The Chronicle of Higher Education Jobs |access-date=11 July 2021 |quote=The University intends to appoint to the Abdulaziz Saud AlBabtain Laudian Professorship in Arabic with effect from 1st October 2022 or as soon as possible thereafter. The Laudian Chair in Arabic, established in 1636, is one of the oldest professorships of Arabic in Europe. The Professorship was generously re-endowed in 2016 by Mr Abdulaziz Saud AlBabtain.}} Bray retired from the position in 2023, and was replaced by Tahera Qutbuddin.{{Cite web |title=Departmental Lecturer, Classical Arabic Literature, University of Oxford |url=https://memorients.com/news/departmental-lecturer-classical-arabic-literature-university-of-oxford |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=MEMOs |language=en}}
Bray's research covers medieval Arabic literature (pre-1800), especially poetry, narrative and biography.{{cite web |title=Julia Bray |url=https://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/people/julia-bray#/ |website=Faculty of Oriental Studies |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=11 July 2021 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Professor Julia Bray |url=https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/people/professor-julia-bray/ |website=St John's College |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=11 July 2021 |language=en}} As well as formal literary analysis of Classical Arabic literature, she uses it as a source for the history of ideas, and to analyse social and cultural meanings.
Selected works
- {{cite book |last1=Ashtiany |first1=Julia |title=The Arabic documents in the archives of the British Political Agency, Kuwait, 1904-1949 |date=1982 |publisher=India Office Library and Records |location=London}}
- {{cite book |editor1-last=Ashtiany |editor1-first=J. |editor2-last=Johnstone |editor2-first=T |editor3-last=Latham |editor3-first=J. |editor4-last=Serjeant |editor4-first=R. |title=Abbasid Belles Lettres |date=1990 |series=The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge}}
- {{cite book |last1=Ashtiany |first1=Julia |title=Media Arabic |date=1993 |series=The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh}}
- {{cite book |editor1-last=Bray |editor1-first=Julia |title=Writing and representation in medieval Islam: Muslim horizons |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York, NY |isbn=9781134171545}}
References
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{{Laudian Professors of Arabic}}
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Category:Laudian Professors of Arabic
Category:Fellows of St John's College, Oxford
Category:Academics of the University of Manchester
Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Academics of the University of St Andrews
Category:Academic staff of Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis
Category:Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford
Category:Alumni of St Cross College, Oxford