Richard L. Sklar is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and founding co-chair of the interdepartmental undergraduate degree program in International Development Studies. He continues to lecture and write on the theories of postimperialism and developmental democracy, as well as the politics of development with particular empirical reference to Africa.

Sklar is a Past-President of the African Studies Association (U.S.A.). He has taught at several universities in Africa, including the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, the University of Zambia and, as a Fulbright Professor, the University of Zimbabwe . His books include Nigerian Political Parties, Corporate Power in an African State (Zambia), African Crisis Areas and U.S. Foreign Policy (coedited with Gerald J. Bender and James S. Coleman), Postimperialism (coauthored with David G. Becker et. al.), African Politics and Problems in Development (coauthored with C.S. Whitaker), Postimperialism and World Politics (coedited with David G. Becker), and African Politics in Postimperial Times: The Essays of Richard L. Sklar.