FAS Dean of Social Science

To: FAS faculty
Cc: FAS Dean's Office; FAS Steering; FAS Lead Administrators, Operations Managers, and Chair's Assistants; Provost's Office; President's Office; University Cabinet

Dear FAS colleagues,

I write with the bittersweet news that, after three years of service, Ken Scheve, Dean Acheson Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs, will be stepping down from his role as the FAS Dean of Social Science at the end of this academic year to become the next Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at the University of Notre Dame. While I—and the FAS—will miss his outstanding leadership, counsel, and insight, I know he will excel in his new role at the University of Notre Dame, his undergraduate alma mater, and I offer him my most sincere congratulations.

Ken is a noted scholar of international and comparative politics. He began his faculty career as an Assistant Professor in the FAS department of Political Science in 2001 and was promoted to Professor in 2006. He then was a faculty member at Stanford, where he served in a number of leadership roles, before he returned to Yale in 2020. Upon his return, Ken served as Deputy Director for Academic Affairs in the Jackson Institute (now the Jackson School) for Global Affairs, before being appointed the FAS Dean of Social Science in 2022.

As Dean of Social Science, Ken has worked tirelessly and with great success to advance the division and the FAS. He facilitated the unprecedented expansion of the faculty in the Department of Statistics and Data Science and led department building across the division, with particular success in Economics and Linguistics. Ken is skilled at giving prospective faculty a vision of interdepartmental and cross-school collaboration, and providing the support necessary for faculty to bring that vision to life. In addition, he was instrumental in transforming our data-intensive social science curriculum. Ken chaired the Data-Intensive Social Science Education Implementation Committee, whose work led to the development of new data science connector courses and expanded introductory offerings for undergraduates. Most recently he led a committee examining the needs as Yale expanded the size of Yale College.

I am very grateful that Alan Gerber, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, has generously agreed to serve temporarily as Acting Dean of Social Science through the Fall 2025 semester. Alan was the inaugural FAS Dean of Social Science from 2014 through 2021, during which time he helped fortify the FAS’s strengths across the division, particularly with regard to data-intensive social science. Alan’s experience and deep commitment to the FAS and Social Sciences will be invaluable in providing continuity and continuing the momentum of the division, as we search for a successor to Ken Scheve.

Over the summer I will appoint a faculty advisory committee to guide the selection of Ken’s successor as the FAS Dean of Social Science, in a process that will take place in the first half of the fall semester. I look forward to engaging with the FAS community throughout that process.

I hope you all will join me in thanking Ken and Alan for their dedicated and exceptional service to the division, the FAS, and the university as a whole.

Sincerely,

Steven

Steven Wilkinson
Dean
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Yale University