Dr. Peter Schakel started teaching at Hope College in 1969. After 1984, he was the Peter C. and Emajean Cook Professor of English. He served as department chair for 20 years (1981 – 87, 1994 – 2005, 2011 – 2015). He is the author, with Jack Ridl, of a textbook, Approaching Literature, in its fourth edition (published by Bedford/​St. Martin’s Press in 2017). Dr. Schakel’s area of scholarly specialization is British Literature 1660 – 1745, focusing particularly on the life and works of Jonathan Swift and of Jane Austen. He also has an interest in the life and works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. He and a colleague, Jack Ridl, have co-authored several literature textbooks.