About

Michaela Pedersen-Macnab is a SSHRC-funded post doctoral fellow at George Washington University. She defended her PhD in Political Science at the University of Toronto in 2025. Her current book project, Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics: Deceiving International Institutions, explains why international institutions sometimes tolerate deception by their member states.

Before pursuing her graduate studies, Michaela was employed as a political officer and policy analyst for the Greater China Division of Global Affairs Canada . During her tenure with the department, she was selected as the inaugural Margaret Meagher Research Fellow for the division in 2021. She has held other major fellowships and awards, including with the Institute for Municipal Finance and Governance, Global Affairs Canada, and the Smart Prosperity Institute. Michaela has also previously worked as a researcher at the China Institute, a Canadian foreign policy think tank. Over the last decade, Michaela has conducted research internationally in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, mainland China, Taiwan, Norway, and the United States.

In the Fall of 2026, Michaela will join MacEwan University as an Assistant Professor of Political Science.