Peter J. Schraeder
Spotlight On: Peter J. Schraeder
Schraeder, Professor and Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, reflects on research and grant engagement in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Peter J. Schraeder, PhD, Professor and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago, traveled in October to Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for ten days of research and grant engagement.
Schraeder’s visit was undertaken in coordination with Father Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula, S.J., who completed his PhD at Loyola University Chicago under Schraeder’s mentorship and now serves as the Director of the Jesuit Arrupe Center for Research and Training (CARF) in Lubumbashi.
Schraeder was also joined by John Kafarhire, a PhD candidate in political science at Loyola, who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and is writing his dissertation under Schraeder’s mentorship.
The purposes of Schraeder’s research trip were threefold.
First, he and Father Murhula met with a four-member team of the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, concerning a U.S. government-funded institutional linkage grant. This proposed collaboration between Loyola and CARF is designed to enable CARF to develop into a regional training center for career civil servants in government ministries within the Congo and from neighboring African countries.
“Unlike classic models, which bring African civil servants to the U.S. for training, our grant project focuses on creating a U.S.-informed training capacity in Africa that is self-sustaining and regionally based,” explains Schraeder. “Our linkage grant focuses on developing this capacity at a Jesuit center in Central Africa – CARF – in coordination with several Loyola partners, most notably our recently launched Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Center for Research on International Affairs.”
Schraeder’s research visit to Lubumbashi also enabled him to participate in two Africa-wide, international meetings that were hosted by CARF: the fifth Conference of the Association of African Studies in Africa and the sixth International Congress of Africa and African Diaspora Studies.
As a specialist of African politics and international relations, Schraeder’s involvement in global African studies networks, such as those mentioned above, is key to supporting his ongoing scholarly agenda. One core tenet of this agenda is the revision of his edited, interdisciplinary textbook, Understanding Contemporary Africa, the fifth edition of which was published in 2020.
Father Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula, S.J. (left) and John Kafarhire (right) with Dean Peter J. Schraeder (center) at the regional parliament in Lubumbashi
Spending time in Lubumbashi also permitted Schraeder to conduct field research related to his current book project, Beyond the “Big Man”: Impact of Democratic Transition and Consolidation on the Formulation and Implementation of African Foreign Policies, which focuses on the foreign policy impacts of dictatorship versus democracy in Africa during the Cold War (1949-1988) and post-Cold War (1989-present) eras.
Lubumbashi was one of the early flashpoints of U.S.-Soviet competition in Africa during the 1960s, which resulted in the assassination of the Congo’s first democratically elected Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba.
“The conference organizers prepared a trip to the place where Lumumba was tortured and ultimately executed, which is now a national monument,” explained Schraeder. “It was a very moving experience to visit this memorial with Congolese and other African scholars who revere Lumumba as one of Africa’s earliest and most prominent nationalist leaders.”
Lubumbashi is also a flashpoint for contemporary Great Power competition between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China. It is the heart of two Congolese provinces that are the source of more than 70 percent of the global supply chain of cobalt that is the core ingredient for rechargeable batteries in cell phones and electric cars.
“As a result, Lubumbashi, like other mineral-rich cities and regions in Africa, is emerging front and center in growing U.S.-Chinese competition in Africa, in which African leaders are able to play one Great Power against another,” explained Schraeder.
Learn more about Schraeder: Dean Schraeder CV
About the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest of Loyola University Chicago’s 15 schools, colleges, and institutes. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments and 37 interdisciplinary programs and centers, more than 450 full-time faculty, and nearly 8,000 students. The 2,000+ classes that we offer each semester span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our campus in Rome, Italy, as well as at dozens of University-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the University’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”
Schraeder, Professor and Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, reflects on research and grant engagement in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Peter J. Schraeder, PhD, Professor and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago, traveled in October to Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for ten days of research and grant engagement.
Schraeder’s visit was undertaken in coordination with Father Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula, S.J., who completed his PhD at Loyola University Chicago under Schraeder’s mentorship and now serves as the Director of the Jesuit Arrupe Center for Research and Training (CARF) in Lubumbashi.
Schraeder was also joined by John Kafarhire, a PhD candidate in political science at Loyola, who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and is writing his dissertation under Schraeder’s mentorship.
The purposes of Schraeder’s research trip were threefold.
First, he and Father Murhula met with a four-member team of the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, concerning a U.S. government-funded institutional linkage grant. This proposed collaboration between Loyola and CARF is designed to enable CARF to develop into a regional training center for career civil servants in government ministries within the Congo and from neighboring African countries.
“Unlike classic models, which bring African civil servants to the U.S. for training, our grant project focuses on creating a U.S.-informed training capacity in Africa that is self-sustaining and regionally based,” explains Schraeder. “Our linkage grant focuses on developing this capacity at a Jesuit center in Central Africa – CARF – in coordination with several Loyola partners, most notably our recently launched Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Center for Research on International Affairs.”
Schraeder’s research visit to Lubumbashi also enabled him to participate in two Africa-wide, international meetings that were hosted by CARF: the fifth Conference of the Association of African Studies in Africa and the sixth International Congress of Africa and African Diaspora Studies.
As a specialist of African politics and international relations, Schraeder’s involvement in global African studies networks, such as those mentioned above, is key to supporting his ongoing scholarly agenda. One core tenet of this agenda is the revision of his edited, interdisciplinary textbook, Understanding Contemporary Africa, the fifth edition of which was published in 2020.
Spending time in Lubumbashi also permitted Schraeder to conduct field research related to his current book project, Beyond the “Big Man”: Impact of Democratic Transition and Consolidation on the Formulation and Implementation of African Foreign Policies, which focuses on the foreign policy impacts of dictatorship versus democracy in Africa during the Cold War (1949-1988) and post-Cold War (1989-present) eras.
Lubumbashi was one of the early flashpoints of U.S.-Soviet competition in Africa during the 1960s, which resulted in the assassination of the Congo’s first democratically elected Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba.
“The conference organizers prepared a trip to the place where Lumumba was tortured and ultimately executed, which is now a national monument,” explained Schraeder. “It was a very moving experience to visit this memorial with Congolese and other African scholars who revere Lumumba as one of Africa’s earliest and most prominent nationalist leaders.”
Lubumbashi is also a flashpoint for contemporary Great Power competition between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China. It is the heart of two Congolese provinces that are the source of more than 70 percent of the global supply chain of cobalt that is the core ingredient for rechargeable batteries in cell phones and electric cars.
“As a result, Lubumbashi, like other mineral-rich cities and regions in Africa, is emerging front and center in growing U.S.-Chinese competition in Africa, in which African leaders are able to play one Great Power against another,” explained Schraeder.
Learn more about Schraeder: Dean Schraeder CV
About the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest of Loyola University Chicago’s 15 schools, colleges, and institutes. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments and 37 interdisciplinary programs and centers, more than 450 full-time faculty, and nearly 8,000 students. The 2,000+ classes that we offer each semester span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our campus in Rome, Italy, as well as at dozens of University-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the University’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”