Mary G. McDonald, professor and Homer C. Rice Chair of Sports and Society in the School of History and Sociology, was featured as a Georgia Power Professor of Excellence during Georgia Tech’s home men’s basketball game against Duke University on February 11, 2018. McDonald was recognized on the floor during the first half of the game as the Georgia Power Professor for the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. She also received a basketball autographed by Georgia Tech men’s basketball coach Josh Pastner.   

Professor McDonald joined the School of History and Sociology in 2013 to direct the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Art’s Sports, Society and Technology program. A past president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Professor McDonald’s research focuses on American culture and sport including issues of inequality as related to gender, race, class, and sexuality. She has published over 40 research articles and book chapters, co-edited an anthology about power and sports, and has also edited four special journal issues devoted to the critical analysis of sports. She has recently begun to expand this focus by engaging Science and Technology Studies theories and methods to critically investigate sporting technologies.