Peter J. Schraeder is serving since July 2020 as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago. The College is comprised of 19 academic departments, 28 interdisciplinary programs, and 7 interdisciplinary centers that span the Computational Sciences, Fine and Performing Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. The College is the academic home for approximately 450 full-time and 275 part-time faculty and 65 full-time staff members who together oversee the teaching and research mentorship of over 7,800 undergraduate and graduate students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). The College offers more than 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by students from across the university.

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 (1982), and a certificate in French from the Catholic Institute of Paris (1981). In addition to holding the title of Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science, where he served as Department Chair (2012-20) and Graduate Program Director (2008-12), Dean Schraeder has held appointments with the interdisciplinary African Studies, Global Studies, and Honors programs. He has served in a variety of university-wide shared governance leadership roles, most notably as the elected chair of Faculty Council which represents faculty across all three Loyola campuses.

Since starting as Dean in 2020, Schraeder developed a six-point strategic vision to integrate the College’s diverse academic structures and to inform all new initiatives as the College builds for the future:

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. Celebrating an inclusive community of faculty, staff, and students who are committed to social justice and equality for all.

The implementation of Dean Schraeder’s six-point strategic vision has contributed to the transformation of the College since 2020. In terms of investing in faculty, the College has recruited 142 new full-time faculty, 56 percent of whom self-identify as faculty of color. The commitment to interdisciplinary research has resulted in the launching of five new interdisciplinary research centers that focus on the most pressing issues of our day in the areas of criminal justice, cybersecurity, data science, international affairs, and the College’s Jesuit heritage. Dean Schraeder significantly changed how the pursuit of external grants are incentivized, resulting in $31 million in new external grants during the last four years (a 60 percent increase over the previous four-year period). He also significantly restructured how the College engages with alumni and donors, resulting in an increase in cash gifts from just over $1 million in 2020-21 (the year he started as dean) to $5.2 million in 2024-25.

In terms of investing in students, the College has launched several research and scholarship opportunities designed to address evolving student interests and expand undergraduate and graduate enrollments. Students are especially attracted to a four-week Undergraduate Summer Research Experience (USRE) launched in 2022 that introduces freshmen and sophomores to research under the mentorship of a faculty member in the summer following their freshman or sophomore years. A record 100 undergraduate students were funded to participate in 73 faculty-mentored projects in summer 2025, with each student receiving up to $3,500. For upper-division undergraduate students, the College launched a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), which as of 2025-26 includes each semester more than 20 courses involving upwards of 400 students each semester in special research-based courses. Dean Schraeder is especially proud of the creation and permanent funding of five sets of “Building Bridges” scholarships that enable undergraduate students to make their academic dreams come true, whether in terms of studying abroad, conducting research with a faculty member, pursuing an interdisciplinary minor, or being involved in community engagement. The most recently created Arrupe Building Bridges scholarship fully funds students who have graduated with a two-year Associate degree from Loyola’s Arrupe College to pursue a four-year BA or BS degree in the College of Arts and Sciences. These and other initiatives are central to Dean Schraeder’s laser-like focus on ensuring robust enrollment and retention rates among our undergraduate and graduate student populations.

Dean Schraeder’s research and teaching interests span four areas: (1) foreign policy analysis and decision-making; (2) United States and European foreign policies toward Africa; (3) African politics and international relations; and (4) the concept of 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 Intervention into the 1990s (1992), United States Foreign Policy Toward Africa (1994), African Politics and Society (2004), Exporting Democracy (2002), Globalization and Emerging Trends in African Foreign Policy (2007), and Understanding Contemporary Africa (2020). He is currently completing a book on how the process of democratization impacts the formulation and implementation of foreign policies within African countries.

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-six countries and territories (thirty-eight in Africa). In addition to serving as a Fulbright lecturer and researcher at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal (1994-96) and at the University of Tunis in Tunisia (2002-03), Dean Schraeder has held visiting appointments at Somali National University in Mogadishu, Somalia (1985), the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti (1987), the French Institute of African Research in Zimbabwe (1996), the University of the Antilles in Guadeloupe (1999), Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center (JFRC) in Italy (2003-05 and summers of 2006 and 2017), and the University of Carthage in Tunis (annually from 2003 to 2019). He has taught numerous interdisciplinary, service-learning, and experiential-learning courses, including overseas. For example, he created and led on an annual basis (2006-15) a three-week, experiential-learning summer travel course to Tunisia for Loyola undergraduate students. These and other international experiences have introduced Dean Schraeder to an array of administrative, research, and teaching styles from several countries, ultimately making me a more effective administrator, researcher, and teacher who is able to work with ease across different cultures. He is a firm believer that our academic institutions are much better places, and that our students, faculty, staff, and administrators are much better people, when we are globally aware and connected.

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 (2010-14) to strengthen research ties between Loyola and three Tunisian universities and a second $250,000 State Department grant (2011-15) 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 twenty-five 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 Sujack Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He resides in Arlington Heights, Illinois, with his wife, Catherine Anne Scanlon, and their three children: Maximilian, Marianne, and Patrick.

Since starting as Dean in 2020, Peter J. Schraeder developed a six-point strategic vision to integrate the College’s diverse academic structures and to inform all new initiatives as the College builds for the future: 

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. Celebrating an inclusive community of faculty, staff and students who are committed to social justice and equality for all. 

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

• Welcome Back Fall 2025 | August 28, 2025
• Thanksgiving Message | November 27, 2024
• Welcome Back Spring 2024 | January 24, 2024
• Holiday Message | December 18, 2023
• Thanksgiving Message | November 21, 2023

View Peter J. Schraeder CV