Dr Eve MacDonald

(she/her)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

My current research is directed towards a monograph on the social history of the Sasanian Persian Empire that will be published by Yale University Press (2026 forthcoming).  I am co-director of a fieldwork project (in collaboration and funded by the University of Chicago - Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures) at the ancient Indian ocean port site of Sohar, Oman that was an important centre of connectivity in the early Islamic maritime trade.  We have been writing up our previous excavation in Oman at the Sasanian period fort of Fulayj that was funded by BIPS and the British Omani Society. I continue to be involved in research, writing and teaching on Carthage and ancient North Africa and have recently published a co-authored book (Bloomsbury, 2024) on the history of the archaeological site of Carthage and the processes that formed it. My new history of Carthage was published in 2025.

Teaching

I teach on a range of topics related to the Roman Empire, the Parthian and Sasanian worlds and Carthage.  My teaching is inspired by students who are interested in understanding today's ideas of the past and how we got here -- ideas around identity, ethnicity, colonialism, post-colonial theory all interest me. I am teaching a new module called The South Shore in 2024 that is focussed on the people and cultures of ancient North Africa.

Biography

I am a Canadian-British ancient historian and archaeologist. I teach and research cultures both inside and outside of the traditional Greco-Roman worlds and have taught courses in Carthaginian, Roman and Persian material culture and history.  I work in the field on excavations at Sohar, Oman at the moment (@soharancientport) and have experience in fieldwork in different regions including the Mediterranean - first in Italy, and then at Carthage in Tunisia - and also extensive work on the excavations of Sasanian Persian outposts in Georgia, Iran and Oman for the ‘Persia and Its Neighbours Project’.

My first book was Hannibal: A Hellenistic Life which followed on from a long interest in the history and archaeology of Carthage and was published with Yale University Press (2015).  Recently published is a co-authored book on the Archaeological History of Carthage (Bloomsbury, 2024) and Carthage: A New History of an Ancient Empire (Ebury) and as Carthage: A New History (Norton, 2026). I am writing also writing a history of the Sasanian Empire for Yale University Press.  

When not teaching at Cardiff I live in London

Professional memberships

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society

British Institute of Persian Studies

Royal Asiatic Society

Institute of Classical Studies

Academic positions

2017-present: Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University

2012-2017: Teaching Fellow at University of Reading

2007-2011: Teaching Fellow at University of Edinburgh (part-time)

Supervisions

Sasanian Iran: history, material culture and archaeology

Carthage: reception, material culture, archaeological history and legacy

Resistance to imperial power and identity

Current supervision

Sean Strong

Kieran Blewitt

Clare Parry

Tony Curtis

Abdulrahman Al-Maashani

Sharareh Ashouri

Past projects

• Dr. Domiziana Rossi - Urban transitions from Sasanian to early Islamic Iran and western Asia (2025)