Margaret Y. MacDonald is Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. She was Dean of Arts at Saint Mary’s University from 2014 to 2020 and previously taught at St. Francis Xavier University (Nova Scotia) and the University of Ottawa. In 2018 she was invited to take up the McCarthy Chair in the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (the Biblicum), where she spent three months.

Dr. MacDonald received her doctorate from the University of Oxford where she held a Commonwealth Scholarship. She has conducted ground-breaking work on early Christian communities and received international recognition through research chairs, translation of her monographs into Italian and Spanish, and numerous leadership roles. She currently holds the Santamarian Chair for the Faculty of Arts at Saint Mary’s University.

In 2024, Dr. MacDonald was named Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. This prestigious recognition highlights her significant contributions to the field of early Christian studies and her pioneering work in the social-scientific interpretation of the letters of Paul, as well as her work has opened new pathways of research in dialogue with modern questions about power, families, and constructions of gender.

Dr. MacDonald’s current research includes a SSHRC Insight Development Grant about how 19th century interpretations of the Bible and the Qur’an have shaped modern laws and societal expectations around the family.