Scheve to lead Arts & Letters at Notre Dame; Gerber to be interim FAS social science dean

Ken Scheve, FAS Dean of Social Science and Dean Acheson Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs, will assume a new role as Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at the University of Notre Dame on July 1, 2025. Alan Gerber, Sterling Professor of Political Science, will temporarily serve as Acting Dean of Social Science in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) through the Fall 2025 semester while the FAS identifies Scheve’s successor.

“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,” wrote FAS Dean Steven Wilkinson in an announcement to the FAS community. “While I—and the FAS—will miss Ken's 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.”  

Scheve, who has served as FAS Dean of Social Science since 2022, is a noted scholar of international and comparative politics. He began his Yale career as an Assistant Professor in the FAS department of Political Science in 2001 and was promoted to Professor in 2006. He then served as a faculty member at Stanford, before returning to Yale in 2020. Upon his return, he 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.

A Yale faculty member since 1993, Gerber is an acclaimed scholar of political behavior, electoral politics, and political representation. He was named FAS Divisional Director of Social Science in 2013 and then served as the inaugural FAS Dean of Social Science from 2014 through 2021. During his deanship, he helped fortify the FAS’s strengths across the division by facilitating cross-departmental partnerships, particularly with regard to data-intensive social science. He currently serves as Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies.

“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,” Wilkinson wrote. “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.”

Wilkinson will appoint a faculty advisory committee to guide the selection of the next FAS Dean of Social Science. The committee, which will engage broadly with the FAS community, will complete its work during the first half of the Fall 2025 semester.