Background
Jacqueline Borsje was appointed to a lectureship in Medieval Irish and European Cultures at the Research Institute for Irish and Celtic Studies at the University of Ulster in 2006. Before this appointment she worked as a researcher at the Research Institute for History and Culture, Utrecht University; at the School of Celtic Studies of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and at the Department of Theology of the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. She is co-initiator and coordinator of the international interdisciplinary research project "The Power of Words in Traditional European Cultures". She is member of the Board of the Dutch Society for Religious Studies; the Alexander Carmichael Advisory Board, Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh; Corresponding Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Religion in Celtic Societies at Lampeter, University of Wales; the Editorial Board of Yorkshire Celtic Studies; and the Consultative Committee for Peritia. Journal of the Medieval Academy of Ireland.

Education
She graduated (doctoraal) cum laude in Religious Studies at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam in 1988, after which she read Old and Middle Irish in Utrecht University. In 1996 she was awarded a PhD (cum laude) at the Vrije Universiteit on early Irish texts, Christianisation and the concept of evil.

Research Fields
Her research projects include Celtic Cosmology, the power of words in medieval Ireland, supernatural attendants of Fate in medieval Irish texts, the process of Christianization and the medieval Irish literary tradition, the concept of evil, and in general her research areas are religion, mythology and literature.

Recent Publications
Recent Articles:

‘Supernatural Threats to Kings: Exploration of a Motif in the Ulster Cycle and in Other Medieval Irish Tales’, in Ruairí Ó hUiginn & B. Ó Catháin (eds), Ulidia II: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Ulster Cycle of Tales (Maynooth: An Sagart, 2009), 173-194.

‘Monotheistic to a Certain Extent. The ‘Good Neighbours’ of God in Ireland’, in: Anne-Marie Korte & Maaike de Haardt (eds), The Boundaries of Monotheism: Interdisciplinary Explorations into the Foundations of Western Monotheism, Studies in Theology and Religion 13 (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2009), 53-82.

‘Druids, Deer and “Words of Power”: Coming to Terms with Evil in Medieval Ireland’, in: Katja Ritari & Alexandra Bergholm (eds), Approaches to Religion and Mythology in Celtic Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008) 122-149. (long version) http://dare.uva.nl/record/293699

‘Druids, Deer and ‘Words of Power’: Coming to Terms with Evil in Medieval Ireland’, in: Nelly van Doorn-Harder & Lourens Minnema (eds), Coping with Evil in Religion and Culture. Case Studies, Currents of Encounter 35 (Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, 2008) 25-49. (short version)

'Demonising the enemy: a study of Congal Cáech', in: Jan Erik Rekdal & Ailbhe Ó Corráin (eds), Proceedings of the Eighth Symposium of Societas Celtologica Nordica, Studia Celtica Upsaliensia Volume 7, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, (University of Uppsala, 2007), 21-38.

'Human sacrifice in medieval Irish literature', in: J. N.
Bremmer (ed.), The Strange World of Human Sacrifice (Leuven: Peeters, 2007), 31-54.

'The 'terror of the night' and the Morrígain: Shifting faces of the supernatural', in: Mícheál Ó Flaithearta (ed.), Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium of Societas Celtologica Nordica. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Celtica Upsaliensia 6 (Uppsala 2007), 71-98. (Download)

'Úath mac Imomain und andere Schreckgespenster - Phantastische Kreationen oder traditionelle Elemente des irischen mittelalterlichen Erbes', in: Helmut Birkhan (Hg.), Kelten-Einfälle an der Donau. Akten des Vierten Symposiums deutschsprachiger Keltologinnen und Keltologen. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften, 345. Band (Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007), 51-65. (Link)

'Fled Bricrenn and tales of terror', Peritia 19 (2005 [2007]) 173-192. (Download)

'Bodb', in: John T. Koch (ed.), Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2006) vol. 1, 220-221.

'Predznamenovania, predskazania i ispytania: demony i orujie v drevneirlandskih textah', in: Tatyana Mikhailova (ed.), Mifologema jentshini-sudbi u drevnih keltov i germancev (Woman as Fate in Old Germanic and Celtic tradition) (Moscow: Indrik, 2005) 172-190.

'Witchcraft and Magic', in: Seán Duffy (ed.), Medieval Ireland. An Encyclopedia (New York: Routledge, 2005) 518-520. (Download)

'Über die Identität von Nár Túathcháech aus der verlorengegangenen Erzählung Echtrae Chrimthainn Nia Náir', in: Erich Poppe (hrsg.), Keltologie heute. Themen und Fragestellungen. Akten des 3. Deutschen Keltologensymposiums - Marburg, März 2001, Studien und Texte zur Keltologie 6 (Münster: Nodus, 2004) 169-193. (Download)

''The evil eye' in early Irish literature and law', Celtica 24 (2003) 1-39. (Download)