Antonia Maioni has been named the seventh president of John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. Upon assuming her role on July 1, she will become the university’s first woman president.
John Cabot University is a private American university offering undergraduate, graduate, and study abroad programs. According to the university, it enrolls about 1,900 full-time and visiting students.
Currently, Dr. Maioni serves as a professor of political science and public policy at McGill University in Montreal. From 2016 to 2021, she served as McGill’s dean of arts, making her the first woman to lead the university’s largest academic unit. Earlier in her tenure, she was associate vice principal for research and international relations and director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. A scholar of health policy and comparative politics, Dr. Maioni has conducted research with Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy.
“It is an honor and a genuine pleasure to accept the invitation to lead John Cabot University into a new chapter in its history,” said Dr. Maioni. “I enthusiastically embrace the university’s mission of providing an international liberal arts education inspired by Rome, a global hub of cultures. I look forward to joining John Cabot’s dynamic and diverse community and building on the enduring legacy of President Franco Pavoncello, as we move forward into an exciting future.”
Dr. Maioni holds an undergraduate degree from Université Laval in Quebec City, a master’s degree from Carleton University in Ottawa, and a Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.


