Charlotte Jean Macdonald FRSNZ is a New Zealand historian. After studying as an undergraduate at Massey University, she earned her PhD from University of Auckland and is now a professor at Victoria University of Wellington.
Charlotte Macdonald | |
---|---|
Born | 1950 |
Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (2017) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Massey University (BA [Hons]) University of Auckland (PhD) |
Thesis | Single Women as Immigrant Settlers in New Zealand, 1853–1871 (1986) |
Doctoral advisor | Raewyn Dalziel |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Victoria University of Wellington |
Main interests | 19th century colonies and empires New Zealand history Gender and women's history |
Macdonald has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Massey University, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Auckland.[1] The title of her 1986 doctoral thesis was Single Women as Immigrant Settlers in New Zealand, 1853–1871.[2]
Macdonald is a professor of history at Victoria University of Wellington. Her areas of expertise include: 19th century colonies and empires; New Zealand history; gender and women's history; and cultural history of bodies, modernity, sport and spectating.[1] Her work has been marked by innovative approaches to historical research methodology and story-telling. For example, in her 1990 book A Woman of Good Character, she analysed the data connected to the lives of over 4,000 women, in combination with more conventional historical archival work, to understand a large migrant group: single women who came to New Zealand in the 19th century.[3] She has also edited a number of collections of New Zealand women's historical primary material, greatly increasing the availability of such material.[4]
Macdonald wrote the Te Ara – Encyclopedia of New Zealand entry on "Women and Men" in New Zealand history.[5]
Macdonald was awarded a Marsden Fund grant in 2014 for a project entitled "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Settler: Garrison and Empire in the Nineteenth Century",[6] which has developed into the Soldiers of Empire project. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi in 2017.[3]