Charlotte Macdonald

Charlotte Jean Macdonald 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.

Macdonald has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Massey University, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Auckland.

The title of her 1986 doctoral thesis was Single Women as Immigrant Settlers in New Zealand, 1853–1871.

Macdonald is a professor of history at Victoria University of Wellington.

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.

She has also edited a number of collections of New Zealand women's historical primary material, greatly increasing the availability of such material.

Macdonald wrote the Te Ara – Encyclopedia of New Zealand entry on "Women and Men" in New Zealand history.

Macdonald was awarded a Marsden Fund grant in 2014 for a project entitled "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Settler: Garrison and Empire in the Nineteenth Century", 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.

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.

Her work has been marked by innovative approaches to historical research methodology and story-telling.