Margarita Mooney Clayton, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Practical Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary

Expertise: The Human Person and the Social Sciences; Philosophy and Education; Aesthetics and Culture

Margarita Mooney Clayton is an Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she teaches classes such as philosophy of social science; aesthetics and education; and resilience, vulnerability and suffering. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Scala Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Princeton, New Jersey, that works to offer meaning and purpose in American education by restoring a classical liberal arts education. Professor Mooney Clayton received her B.A. in Psychology from Yale University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University. Prior to returning to Princeton, she was on the faculty of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Yale University. She is the author of The Love of Learning: Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts (Cluny Media, 2021) and Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora (University of California Press, 2019). In addition to her scholarly publications, she has written for publications that reach wide audiences both inside and outside academia such as Real Clear PolicyScientific AmericanChronicle of Higher EducationFirst ThingsPublic DiscourseHedgehog Review, National Catholic Register, and Church Life Journal. Much of her work can be found at www.margaritamooneyclayton.com.