A native of Egypt, Eglal Doss-Quinby earned her Ph.D. in medieval French literature at New York University. She joined the faculty of Smith College in 1988.

Professor Doss-Quinby is a renowned literary scholar and translator whose field of specialization is Old French lyric poetry. Working alone or in collaboration with musicologists and other philologists and translators, she has published eight books, including a groundbreaking anthology of medieval French compositions in the feminine voice, Songs of the Women Trouvères (Yale University Press, 2001). Her latest book is a multidisciplinary edition of the songs and motets of Robert de Reims, an influential trouvère, offering translations into both English and Modern French (Penn State University Press, 2020). She has also collaborated on a critical edition of the music and texts of one of the richest collections of thirteenth-century French polyphony, Motets from the Chansonnier de Noailles (A-R Editions, 2017). Earlier volumes include « Sottes chansons contre Amours »: parodie et burlesque au Moyen Âge (Honoré Champion, 2014, 2010); Cultural Performances in Medieval France: Essays in Honor of Nancy Freeman Regalado (Boydell & Brewer, 2007); The Old French Ballette: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 308 (Librairie Droz, 2006); The Lyrics of the Trouvères: A Research Guide (1994); and Les refrains chez les trouvères du XIIe siècle au début du XIVe (1984). Her articles, translations, and reviews have appeared in leading journals and conference proceedings published in the United States and Europe.

Professor Doss-Quinby regularly teaches Women Writers of the French Middle Ages; The Lady, the Knight, the King; Language and Identity; and Global French: The Language of Business and International Trade. She last served as chair of the Department of French Studies in 2011–2014. She last directed the Smith College Junior Year in Paris Program in 2007–2008. She is also a longtime member of the Medieval Studies Program Committee; she last directed the program in 2006–2007.