Margaret Scotford Archer (born 20 January 1943) is a British sociologist, who spent most of her academic career at the University of Warwick, UK, where she was for many years Professor of Sociology.
She is best known for coining the term elisionism in her 1995 book Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach.
On 14 April 2014, Professor Archer was named by Pope Francis to succeed former Harvard law professor and U.S.
Ambassador to the Holy See Mary Ann Glendon as President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, and served on this position until her retirement on 27 March 2019.