
Duperron, Dr. Brenna
PhD in English Literature (Dalhousie University); MA in English Literature (Simon Fraser University); BA in English Literature (Simon Fraser University)
Biography
Dr. Brenna Duperron is an Assistant Professor of English, specializing in Medieval and Early Moden literatures. Duperron received her PhD from Dalhousie University in 2024, and her SSHRC-funded doctoral dissertation, “Fear Not the Language of the World: Red Reading Literacy in The Book of Margery Kempe”, bridges Indigenous and premodern scholarship, disrupting the borders of orality/literacy in medieval texts. Before joining UNBC, she taught as a contract faculty member at Dalhousie University, University of King’s College, and Mount Saint Vincent University. Her research focuses on developing, shaping, and promoting the emerging subfield of Indigenous/medieval studies. She won the Van Courtland Elliot Prize for her piece in the English Language Notes special issues Medieval Pasts and Indigenous Futures, “Ghostly Consciousness in The Book of Margery Kempe,” (2020) which reads pre-contact texts through Indigenous methods and approaches as an act of decolonization. In a 2021 issue of Exemplaria, Duperron co-authored “Thinking Indigeneity: A Challenge to Medieval Studies” with Elizabeth Edwards, Inglis Professor at University of King’s College, providing both a state-of-the-field review of the interdisciplinary links between medieval studies and Indigenous studies and a ‘call-for-action’ imploring further consideration and commitment to decolonial practices. After completing the 2025 RaceB4Race First Book Institute, she is currently working on her first monograph based on research from her dissertation.
Research and expertise
- Literature
Selected publications
Articles
“Unexpected Swords in the Stone.” Arthuriana/TheSoWhat, edited by Jon Correa Reyes, posted online on 30 March 2025, https://www.arthuriana.com/tsw/unexpected-swords-in-the-stone
“Thinking Indigeneity: A Challenge to Medieval Studies.” Exemplaria, 33.1, 2021, 94-107, co-authored with Elizabeth Edwards.
“Ghostly Consciousness in The Book of Margery Kempe.” English Language Notes, Special Issue: Indigenous Futures & Medieval Pasts, 58.2, October 2020, 121-135.
Public-Facing Scholarship
“How the Middle Ages Are Being Revisited Through Indigenous Perspectives.” The Conversation, 27 May 2024, https://theconversation.com/how-the-middle-ages-are-being-revisited-thr…
“Reconciling Medieval Studies: A Showcase of Dr. Tarren Andrews, Sarah-Nelle Jackson, and Sarah LaVoy-Brunette,” OpenThink, Dalhousie University, 5 March 2024, https://blogs.dal.ca/openthink/reconciling-medieval-studies-a-showcase-of-dr-tarren-andrews-sarah-nelle-jackson-and-sarah-lavoy-brunette/
“’Such Lands Were Pre-Eminently Desirable:’ Reading the Colonial Language of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘On Fairy-Stories,’” 3 October 2023, https://blogs.dal.ca/openthink/such-lands-were-pre-eminently-desirable-reading-the-colonial-language-of-j-r-r-tolkiens-on-fairy-stories/
“Understanding ‘Red Reading,’” 5 September 2023, https://blogs.dal.ca/openthink/understanding-red-reading/
“Off With His Head: Reading the Headless Colonization of the Green Knight (Part 1).” DalOpenThink, 6 March 2023, https://blogs.dal.ca/openthink/off-with-his-head-reading-the-headless-colonization-of-the-green-knight-part-1/
“From Both Our Eyes: Red Reading Medieval Texts.” Throughlines, video of presentation from the 2021 Education: RaceB4Race Symposium, https://www.throughlines.org/suite-content/red-reading-medieval-texts