Peter J. Schraeder has served since July 2020 as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago, which includes 20 academic departments and 30 interdisciplinary programs and 7 interdisciplinary centers spanning the Computational Sciences, Fine and Performing Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. As of the fall of 2023, he oversees 454 full-time faculty (296 tenured or tenure-track and 158 non-tenure-track), 256 part-time faculty, 83 staff members across all departments, programs, centers, and the Dean’s Office, and 7,081 undergraduate and 699 graduate students who are enrolled in 2,079 classes across 207 academic programs.

Dean Schraeder received his MA (1986) and PhD (1990) in International Studies from the University of South Carolina, after completing a double major in International Studies and French at Bradley University (1982), a degree in French Civilization and Language at the Sorbonne in Paris, France (1982), and a certificate in French from the Catholic Institute of Paris (1981). In addition to holding the academic title of Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science, where he served as Department Chair (2012-2020) and Graduate Program Director (2008-2012), Dean Schraeder has held appointments with the interdisciplinary African Studies, Global Studies, Honors, and Islamic World Studies programs. He has also served in a variety of university-wide shared governance leadership roles, most notably as the elected chair of Faculty Council.

Dean Schraeder’s research and teaching interests span five major areas: (1) decision-making theory; (2) foreign policy analysis; (3) United States and European foreign policies toward Africa and the Middle East; (4) African politics and international relations including North Africa; and (5) intervention in world politics. He is the author or co-author of ninety-nine peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and the author or editor of ten books, including Understanding Contemporary Africa (2020), Globalization and Emerging Trends in African Foreign Policy: A Comparative Perspective of Eastern Africa (2007), African Politics and Society: A Mosaic in Transformation (2004), Exporting Democracy: Rhetoric vs. Reality (2002), United States Foreign Policy Toward Africa: Incrementalism, Crisis, and Change (1994), and Intervention into the 1990s: U.S. Foreign Policy Toward the Third World (1992). He is currently writing a book, Beyond the “Big Man”: Impact of Democratic Transition and Consolidation on the Formulation and Implementation of African Foreign Policies, which includes case studies from all regions of the African continent.

Dean Schraeder’s administrative, research and teaching abilities are informed by wide-ranging overseas experiences, including having lived, lectured or carried out research in eighty-one countries and territories, including thirty-four in Africa. In addition to serving as a Fulbright lecturer and researcher at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal (1994-1996) and at the University of Tunis in Tunisia (2002-2003), Dean Schraeder has held visiting appointments at the University of Carthage in Tunis (annually, 2003-2019), Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center (JFRC) in Italy (2003-2005 and summers of 2006 and 2017), the University of the Antilles in Guadeloupe (1999), the French Institute of African Research in Zimbabwe (1996), the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti (1987), and Somali National University in Mogadishu, Somalia (1985). He has taught numerous interdisciplinary, service-learning, and experiential-learning courses, including overseas. In the case of Tunisia, for example, he created and led in 2004 and 2005 the JFRC’s ten-day spring break trip to Tunisia, and from 2006 to 2015, led an annual twenty-one-day experiential-learning summer travel course for U.S. students to Tunisia.

Fluent in English and French, Dean Schraeder is involved in several international research networks, most notably in francophone Africa. He is the recipient of numerous grants, including a $250,000 State Department grant (2010-2014) to strengthen research ties between Loyola and three Tunisian universities and a second $250,000 State Department grant (2011-2015) to undertake survey research on Tunisia’s transition to democracy. He served as co-Principal Investigator of a $250,000 grant from the Middle East and North Africa initiative of the American Political Science Association to hold workshops in Morocco and Tunisian during 2018 and 2019 to train 25 PhD students and post-doctoral candidates from across the world, including four from Loyola.

Dean Schraeder is the recipient of three of the highest honors a faculty member can receive at Loyola: Faculty Member of the Year, Graduate Faculty Member of the Year, and the Sujack Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He resides in Arlington Heights, Illinois, with his wife, Catherine Anne Scanlon, and three children: Maximilian (24), Marianne (21), and Patrick (18).

As Dean, I set out a six-point strategic vision for the College of Arts and Sciences that harnesses our existing strengths, provides a point of coordination for our complex academic structure, and informs all new initiatives as we look to the future, as outlined below:

1. Building interdisciplinary bridges within the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as between the College and all other schools at Loyola.
2. Nurturing innovative program development to ensure that the College remains at the forefront of emerging academic needs and challenges.
3. Expanding engagement with alumni and donors who wish to be more deeply involved in the life of the College.
4. Promoting the pursuit of external grants that fund faculty and student research on the major issues of our times.
5. Building international bridges to expand the numbers of our students who study abroad, international students who study in the College and faculty and staff who engage in international collaborations.
6. Promoting and celebrating a diverse community of faculty, staff, and students who are committed to social justice and equality for all individuals and groups, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, or ability.

Read messages and updates shared with the College of Arts and Sciences community by Dean Schraeder:

• Holiday Message | December 18, 2023
• Thanksgiving Message | November 21, 2023

View Dean Schraeder's CV.