Professor
Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture University of Virginia
Chairman, Immigration Policy Roundtable of the Citizens Commission on Immigration, a Braver Angels initiative
McGuinn Hall Room 228
Telephone: 617-552-3112
Email: peter.skerry@bc.edu
Immigration/refugee policy and politics听
Racial, ethnic, and religious pluralism in the U.S.
Islam in American society and politics
Societal change and political institutions
Racial and Ethnic Politics; Immigration Policy
Peter Skerry is professor of political science at Boston College and a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. He was previously professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, and taught political science at UCLA, where he was Director of Washington Programs at the Center for American Politics and Public Policy. He was also Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He served as co-convenor of the Brookings-Duke Immigration Policy Roundtable, and as co-director of the Dialogue on Islam in America at the American Enterprise Institute. He was a member of the Malta Forum, a dialogue between Western and Muslim public intellectuals convened by the Institute for American Values. He served on the Advisory Council on European/Transatlantic Issues at the Heinrich B枚ll Foundation of the B眉ndis 90/Die Gr眉nen (the German Green Party). He has been awarded residential fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the American Academy in Berlin, and the Russell Sage Foundation.听
Professor Skerry is currently on the Research and Programs Committee of the Board of Directors of the Pioneer Institute in Boston. He previously served on the board of the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO), a Chicago-based Latino community organization and charter school operator. He is currently chairman of the Immigration Policy Roundtable of the Citizens Commission on Immigration, an initiative of Braver Angels, a nationwide citizens movement seeking to depolarize American politics.
Professor Skerry has published in a variety of scholarly and general interest publications, including Society, Publius, Journal of Policy History, The Forum, The New Republic, Slate, The Public Interest, The Wilson Quarterly, National Review, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, National Affairs, The Weekly Standard, First Things, Foreign Affairs, The American Interest, and American Purpose.
He is author of Counting on the Census: Race, Group Identity, and the Evasion of Politics (Brookings) and Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority (Free Press/Harvard University Press), which was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.听 For Polity Press, he is currently working on a book examining the sources of and possible responses to America鈥檚 continuing immigration challenges.
Counting on the Census: Race, Group Identity and the Evasion of Politics (Brookings Institution)听
Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority (Free Press/ Harvard University Press)
"The Trump Effect: On Immigration," National Review (November 2025)
"Minority Report": essay review of The Latino Century: How America's Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy by Mike Madrid; Claremont Review of Books (Spring 2025).听
"Mr. Trump, Give Up on That Wall,"听National Review听(December 2024)听
"The Little Lady with the Snake Tongs: A Tribute to Roberta Evans Wilson, 1931-2023," (with Martha Bayles),听American Purpose;听January 12, 2024听
"Are Muslims at Home in America?" National Review (October 2023)听
"Why 鈥楤lack Lives Matter鈥 Matters,鈥 National Affairs (Spring 2021)
鈥Puritans' Progress: Lawrence Mead and the Question of American Culture,鈥 The Hedgehog Review (Spring 2021)
"What We Can Learn from Our Relatively Open Borders," Cato Unbound: A Journal of Debate (July 27,听 2021)听
"Regaining Control: Essay review of Losing Control: How a Left-Right Coalition Blocked Immigration Reform and Provoked the Backlash That Elected Trump by Jerry Krammer,"听The American Interest (July 15, 2020)
","听Berkley Forum (January 23, 2020)
鈥淏ecoming White,鈥 essay review of Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration, and the Future of White Majorities by Eric Kaufmann; The Claremont Review of Books (Fall 2019).
"Lost in the Fog - Immigrants & Refugees, Bureaucrats, Activists" The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in contemporary Politics听听(Volume 17, Issue 3; October 2019).听
The Dead End of "More Democracy", The American Interest (September 4, 2019) [Part Two听of a two-part exploration of contemporary populism]
"Will the Real Populists Please Stand Up-- Or Perhaps Sit Down and Chill",听The American Interest (September 3, 2019) [Part One of a two-part exploration of contemporary populism]
"Nathan Glazer- Merit Before Meritocracy," The American Interest (April 3,听 2019)
A conversation with Antje Hermenau,听The American Interest, (March 9, 2019) [transcribed and edited interview conducted with TAI editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Gedmin, of a former German Green Party leader and member of the Bundestag who was expelled from the party for engaging with leaders of the AfD Party and its sympathizers]听
"Dancing Around the Caravan:听The Media, The Left, and The Catholic Church,鈥 The American Interest (January 8, 2019).
"Explaining the Indefensible: Trump and the Border Crisis,鈥 The American Interest (July 30, 2018).
鈥淐omprehensive Immigration Confusion,鈥 in Carol Swain, ed., Debating Immigration, Second Edition (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
鈥淕ood Neighbors and Good Citizens: Beyond the Legal-Illegal Immigration Debate,鈥 (with Noah Pickus) in Carol Swain, ed., Debating Immigration, Second Edition (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
"," Clingendael Institute (November 8. 2016)
"Opposing Immigration Wasn鈥檛 Always Racist," Boston Globe (April 16, 2017)
"American Brotherhood:听The Muslim Brothers Are Present in the United States, But Not a Threat鈥 Foreign Affairs (on-line; April 8, 2017)
"Mexican Americans: New Guys on the Block" (with Juan R. Rangel), The Weekly Standard (February 13, 2017)听听
"Christmas with the Brotherhood"听Society (September/October 2016)
鈥淎 Young Man at the Periphery of the Profession鈥 in Joseph Dorman and Leslie Lenkowsky, eds., When Ideas Mattered: A Nathan Glazer Reader (Transaction, 2016)
"Clash of Generations: The Cultural Contradictions of Islam in America," The Weekly Standard (December 28, 2015/January 4, 2016)
"?" (review essay of听Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution听by Mona Eltahawy) in听The American Interest听(October 3, 2015)
"Imagine No Religion"听(review essay of听Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now听by Ayaan Hirsi Ali) in听Claremont Review of Books听(Summer 2015)
"" (review essay of Immigration Outside the Law by Hiroshi Motomura) in The American Interest (March 12, 2015)
鈥.鈥澨Orange County Register听(October 10, 2013).听
鈥淧roblems of the Second-Generation: To Be Young, Muslim, and American.鈥澨The Weekly Standard (June 24, 2013)
鈥.鈥 Policy Brief听(Progressive Policy Institute) March 2013.听
鈥淪plitting the Difference on Illegal Immigration.鈥澨National Affairs听(Winter 2013)
鈥淎merican Culture and the Muslim World.鈥听听Society (January/February 2012) [reprinted in Muslims in America, edited volume published by Al Mesbar Studies and Research Center; Dubai, UAE, 2011]
鈥淕ingrich vs. the Immigration Status Quo,鈥 Wall Street Journal (November 30, 2011)
鈥,鈥澨National Affairs听听(Fall 2011)
鈥,鈥 with Gary J. Schmitt.听Christian Science Monitor (March 10, 2011)
鈥Breaking the Immigration Stalemate: From Deep Disagreements to Constructive Proposals:听Report of the Brookings-Duke Immigration Policy Roundtable, with Noah Pickus and William Galston听(Brookings Institution, October 2009)听
鈥淲hy 鈥楥omprehensive Immigration Reform鈥 Is Not Comprehensive,鈥听The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics听(Volume 7, Issue 3; July 2009)
鈥Day Laborers and Dock Workers: Casual Labor Markets and Immigration Policy.鈥澨Society (January/ Frebruary 2008).听
鈥Immigration and Social Disorder.鈥 in Norton Garfinkle and Daniel Yankelovich, ed., Uniting America: Restoring the Vital Center to American Democracy (Yale University Press, 2006)
鈥.鈥澨Time.com, November 11.
鈥.鈥澨Time, (August 21, 2006)
鈥How Not to Build a Fence.鈥澨Foreign Policy (September/October 2006)
鈥America鈥檚 Other Muslims.鈥澨Wilson Quarterly听(Autumn 2005)
鈥Political institutions and minority mobility in the USA.鈥 in Glenn C. Loury, Tariq Modood, and Steven M. Teles, eds., Ethnicity, Social Mobility, and Public Policy in the United States and the United Kingdom (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
"What Are We To Make of Samuel Huntington?"听Society听(November- December 2005)
鈥溾楾his Was Our Riot Too鈥: The Political Assimilation of Today鈥檚 Immigrants.鈥 In听Reinventing the Melting Pot:听The New Immigrants and What It Means to Be American, edited by Tamar Jacoby (Basic Books, 2004)
鈥淐itizenship Begins at Home: A New Approach to the Civic Integration of Immigrants.鈥澨The Responsive Community听(Winter 2003/2004)