Fr. Matthew Carnes, S.J., serves as Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Santa Clara University, as well as Executive Director of the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education and Professor of Political Science. In this role, he is charged with strengthening and promoting the University’s Jesuit Catholic mission and character in ways that are bold, inclusive, and reflective of the rich diversity of the University community.
Prior to joining Santa Clara University, he was an associate professor in the Department of Government and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and he served as Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs in the School of Foreign Service (2023-2024) and as the Director of the Center for Latin American Studies (2016-2022).
His research examines the dynamics of labor and social welfare policy in developing and middle-income countries. A specialist on Latin America, he has conducted extensive field research in Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Bolivia, and he has worked on development projects in Honduras, Mexico, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Ecuador. He is the author of Continuity Despite Change: The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America (Stanford University Press, 2014), and numerous journal articles.
A distinguished educator, he received three of Georgetown University’s highest teaching awards, including Georgetown College's Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Award (2017 and 2011), given by graduating seniors of the College; the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Faculty of the Year Award (2013), given by the SFS Academic Council; and the University-wide Dorothy Brown Award for Outstanding Teaching Achievement (2011). In 2012, he was featured as one of the country's best professors in the Princeton Review's publication, 300 Best Professors.
In recent years, he has been a Visiting Scholar at Campion Hall, Oxford University (2023), a Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame (Spring 2009) and a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (Academic Year 2011-2012).
Specialties: Comparative politics, social policy, labor policy, Latin America, Jesuits, Catholic Church