Rate My Professor Cynthia Schneider

Cynthia Schneider serves as Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy in Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. She earned her Ph.D. and B.A. from Harvard University. Prior to her current role, Schneider was a member of the art history faculty at Georgetown University from 1984 to 2005. During this time, she published on Rembrandt and seventeenth-century Dutch art and organized exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. From 1998 to 2001, President Clinton appointed her as U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, where she led initiatives in cultural diplomacy, biotechnology, cyber security, and education.

Schneider teaches courses in Diplomacy and Culture in the School of Foreign Service. She is the co-founding director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University. Her work focuses on cultural diplomacy, particularly relations with the Muslim world and the Middle East and North Africa. She co-directs the Los Angeles-based MOST Resource on Muslims on Screen and Television and the Timbuktu Renaissance, a strategy for countering extremism and promoting peace and development that grew out of her leadership of the Arts and Culture Dialogue Initiative within Brookings’ Center for Middle East Policy. A nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Institution, she authors policy papers and contributes to blogs for Huffington Post, CNN.com, and Foreign Policy. Schneider serves on multiple boards of directors and advisory boards and organizes initiatives bridging arts, culture, media, and international affairs.