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Claudena Skran is Director of the Business & Entrepreneurship program and Professor of Government and the Edwin and Ruth West Professor of Economics and Social Science.

As a the Director of the Business & Entrepreneurship program at Â鶹ӰԺ University, I manage and coordinate one of the largest majors on campus.  Since the Business & Entrepreneurship (BUEN) major is a multi-disciplinary one, my role involves working with students and faculty from music and the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, as well as business professionals with deep experience. My courses for BUEN major include Social Entrepreneurship, which guides students as they translate their desire for social change into positive action, and Experiential Learning and Professional Preparation, which helps students prepare for internships and careers.  

In my role as a senior member of the Government department at Â鶹ӰԺ, I teach courses for the International Relations major on international politics, African politics and security, field research methods, and courses on global issues such as refugees, forced migration, and sustainable development.  I pioneered a special type of "field experience" class that allows undergraduates to travel to and conduct a project in West Africa (Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia) or the Caribbean (Jamaica). I further organize the Povolny Lecture Series in International Studies, which brings speakers and topics related to contemporary international affairs directly to the Â鶹ӰԺ campus. 

In addition to traditional classroom teaching, I direct a non-profit practicum, KidsGive, where LU students learn important life and careers skills, while contributing to education and schools in West Africa.  Since 2009,  LU students involved in KidsGive have provided scholarships, sports days, computer labs, libraries and eye testing on in-person volunteer trips, and also fundraised for a water well (in conjunction with Rotary International) and a junior secondary school for girls in Sierra Leone.

My scholarly work addresses the topics of refugees, refugee entrepreneurship, humanitarian assistance, and refugee law. My book, Refugees in Interwar Europe: The Emergence of a Regime (Oxford University Press: 1995) focused on the early phase of the international refugee regime. I coedited, with Evan Easton-Calabria, a special issue of the Journal of Refugee Studies, ‘Rethinking Refugee Self-Reliance,’ Vol. 33, No. 1, 2020, and contributed a chapter on the sustainability of refugee enterprises in Sierra Leone. My legal scholarship includes a chapter on the "Historical Development of International Refugee Law," in an edited volume on the 1951 Refugee Convention (2024).

One of my passions is learning through meaningful travel.  I have guided over 20 different trips for students, faculty, and alumni, and this has taken me to places as diverse as Japan, China, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and the United Kingdom. My next travel adventure (D-term 2026) with students will be Business & Entrepreneurship Abroad in Sweden and Finland, both places I explored during my last sabbatical (see photo).