Peter Loewen

Director, Munk School
Professor, Department of Political Science
Professor, Munk School
Director, PEARL
Robert Vipond Distinguished Professor in Democracy, Department of Political Science

Observatory
315 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 0A7 Canada

Headshot of Peter Loewen; photo by Alexis MacDonald

Current affiliations

  • Director, Munk School
  • Director, PEARL
  • Associate Director, Schwartz Reisman Institute for AI and Society

Areas of interest

  • Future of democratic societies
  • Policy, elections and representation
  • Politics of technological change
  • Citizens' and elected officials’ perceptions of each other

Biography

Director, Munk School

Professor Peter Loewen is the Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. Professor Loewen teaches in the Department of Political Science and the Munk School.

Professor Loewen is the Director of PEARL, Associate Director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute, a Senior Fellow at Massey College, and a Fellow with the Public Policy Forum. For 2020-2022, he is a Distinguished Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Tel Aviv University.

Professor Loewen received his B.A. from Mount Allison University (2002) and his PhD from l’Université de Montréal (2008). He held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of British Columbia and the University of California at San Diego. Since joining the University of Toronto Mississauga in 2010, he has held visiting positions at the Melbourne School of Government at the University of Melbourne, the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

From 2016 to 2018, Professor Loewen was the Director of the School of Public Policy & Governance until it was amalgamated with the Munk School of Global Affairs to create the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

Professor Loewen’s work has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Medicine, Nature Human Behaviour, American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, Transactions of the Royal Society B, and Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and other journals. He has edited four books and is a regular contributor to the media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Globe & Mail, Toronto Star and National Post.

He grew up in North Bay, Ontario and now lives in Toronto with his wife, Yvette, and two children.

Professor Loewen’s CV is available here.

** For assistance, please contact Ana Cardoso, Manager, Office of the Director, 416-946-8450, ana​.cardoso​@utoronto​.ca**

Director, PEARL

Peter John Loewen is the Director of PEARL, the Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and a Professor in the Department of Political Science. He is also the Associate Director of the Schwartz-Reisman Institute. 

Peter received his BA from Mount Allison University (2002) and his PhD from l’Université de Montréal (2008). He held postdocs at the University of British Columbia and the University of California at San Diego. Since coming to Toronto in 2010, he has held visiting positions at the Melbourne School of Government at the University of Melbourne, the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

His work has been published in American Political Science Review, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Transactions of the Royal Society B, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, and Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and other journals. He has edited four books. He often contributes to the popular press. His CV is available here.

Select publications

  • Sheffer, Lior, Peter John Loewen, Stefaan Walgrave, Stefanie Bailer, Christian Breunig, Luzia Helfer, Jean-Benoit Pilet, Frederic Varone, and Rens Vliegenthart. 2023. “How do Politicians Bargain? Evidence from Ultimatum Games with Legislators.” American Political Science Review.
  • Sheffer, Lior, Peter Loewen, Stuart Soroka, Tamir Sheafer, and Stefaan Walgrave. 2018. “Non- representative representatives? An Experimental Study of the Decision Making of Elected Politicians.” American Political Science Review.  
  • Magistro, Beatrice, Sophie Borwein, Bart Bonikowski, Peter John Loewen, Blake Lee-Whiting, Beatrice Magistro. Forthcoming. “Attitudes toward automation and the demand for policies addressing job loss: the effects of information about trade-offs.” Political Science Research and Methods.
  • Lior Sheffer, Peter John Loewen, and Jack Lucas. Forthcoming. “Long-Term Policymaking and Politicians’ Beliefs about Voters: Evidence from a Three-Year Panel Study of Politicians.” Governance
  • Duch, Raymond, Laurence SJ Roope, Mara Violato, Matias Fuentes Becerra, Thomas Samuel Robinson, Jean-Francois Bonnefon, Jorge Friedman, Peter John Loewen, Pavan Mamidi , Alessia Melegaro, Mariana Blanco, Juan F Vargas, Julia Seither, Paolo Candio, Ana Gibertoni Cruz, Xinyang Hua, Adrian G. Barnett, and Philip M Clarke. 2021. “Citizens from 13 countries share similar preferences for COVID-19 vaccine allocation priorities”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
  • Merkley, Eric, Eran Amsalem, and Peter John Loewen. 2021. “Does Talking to the Other Side Reduce Inter-Party Hostility? Evidence From Three Studies.” Political Communication.

Professor Loewen's complete list of publications can be viewed here.