Dr Mark G. McGowan

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Professor of History & Celtic Studies, University of Toronto
Senior Advisor to the President (USMC)
Co-ordinator, Celtic Studies Program
Principal Emeritus, University of St. Michael’s College

Profile

Mark G. McGowan is a Professor of History at the University of Toronto, and former Principal of St. Michael’s College (2002-11 and 2020-22). He is currently the Coordinator of the Celtic Studies Program. A recipient of four university teaching awards, he specializes in Canadian, Irish, religious, education, and immigration history. He has published many books and articles. In 2009, his book Death or Canada was the basis for a joint award-winning Canada-Ireland docudrama on the Famine, aired in Canada, Ireland, the USA, and Britain. His forthcoming book is titled Finding Molly Johnson: Irish Famine Orphans in Canada. Mark’s latest research project focuses on the Canadian Indigenous Peoples’ donations to Irish Famine Relief in 1847. This forms part of a much broader study on Irish-Indigenous relations, and within the Treatied Spaces project he is examining the work of Lord Dufferin in Canada, who was governor general when the Indian Act was passed in 1876 and when Indigenous residential schools emerged as government policy.