Peter Skerry is Professor of Political Science at Boston College and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, where his research focuses on social policy, racial and ethnic politics, and immigration. Professor Skerry has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, and served as Director of Washington Programs for the University of California at Los Angeles’ Center for American Politics and Public Policy, where he also taught political science. He was formerly a Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Legislative Director for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York. He serves on the editorial board of the journal American Politics Research and on the board of advisory editors of Society magazine. Professor Skerry is also a member of the Advisory Council on European/Transatlantic Issues at the Heinrich Böll Foundation of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (the German Green Party).

His writings on politics, racial and ethnic issues, immigration and social policy have appeared in a variety of scholarly and general interest publications, including Society, Publius, The Journal of Policy History, The New Republic, Slate, The Public Interest, The Wilson Quarterly, National Review, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. His book, Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority (Harvard University Press), was awarded the 1993 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His most recent book is Counting on the Census? Race, Group Identity, and the Evasion of Politics, published by the Brookings Institution Press. His current project is a study of the social, cultural, and political integration of Muslims and Arabs in the United States.

publications

Skerry, P., 2012. "The Muslim-American Muddle."

Skerry, P., 2011, November 25. "American Culture and the Muslim World."

American Enterprise Instiutute for Public Policy Research (AEI)
"Peter King Hearing: Why Won't Media—or Muslims—Address Islamism in America?"
3/10/2011

Boston Globe op-ed
"Silence from Muslim- Americans."
01/29/2011

Skerry, P. (2010, August 19). "The real debate is among Muslims."

Skerry, P. (2010, August 3). "The immigration vote."

Skerry, P. (2010). "American Culture and the Muslim World." Brookings Institution.

Skerry, P. (2010). "A Testing Attempt for Islam's Center." Brookings Institution.

Skerry, P. (2009). "Breaking the Immigration Stalemate." Brookings-Duke Immigration Roundtable Report.

Skerry, P. (2009, March/April). "Facing Facts about Immigration." The American Interest.

Skerry, P. (2008, September 15). "Who Gets In: And what happens once they’re here." The Weekly Standard.

Skerry, P. (2007). "Day Laborers and Dock Workers." Society.

Pickus, N. and Skerry, P. (2007). "Good Neighbors and Good Citizens." In C. Swain (Ed.), Debating Immigration. (pp. 95-113). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Skerry, P. (2007, May/June). "Islam in America." The American Interest.

Skerry, P. (2006). "Immigration and Social Disorder." In N. Garfinkle and D. Yankelovich (Eds.), Uniting America: Restoring the Vital Center to American Democracy. (pp.124-138). New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.

Skerry, P. (2006, November 11). "The New Muslim-Liberal Coalition: The Victory of Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the Congress, shows the changing alliances that were set in motion by 9/11." Time.

Skerry, P. (2006, September/October). "How Not to Build a Fence." Foreign Policy.

Skerry, P. (2006, August 21). "The American Exception: Why Muslims in the U.S. aren’t as attracted to jihad as those in Europe." Time.

Skerry, P. (2006, Summer). "Mother of Invention." Wilson Quarterly.

Wilson, J. Q. and Skerry, P. (2006, May 18). "Line in the Sand." Wall Street Journal.

Skerry, P. and Fernandes, D. (2006, May 8). "Fixing the immigration debate. Citizen Pain." The New Republic.

Skerry, P. (2005). "Political institutions and minority mobility in the USA." In G.C. Loury, T. Modood, and S.M. Teles (eds.), Ethnicity, Social Mobility and Public Policy (pp. 475-492). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Skerry, P. (2005, November/December). "Review Essay: What Are We to Make of Samuel Huntington?" Society.

Skerry, P. (2005, Autumn). "America’s Other Muslims." Wilson Quarterly.

Skerry, P. and Fernandes, D. (2004, November 26). "Interpreting the Muslim Vote." Boston Globe.

Skerry, P. (2003/04, Winter). "Citizenship Begins at Home." The Responsive Community.

Skerry, P. (2002). Multiracialism and the Administrative State. In J. Perlmann and M.C. Waters (eds.), The New Race Question (pp. 327-338). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Skerry, P. (1992, Summer). "Annals of Ethnicity: E Pluribus Hispanic?" Wilson Quarterly.