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Slaughter '80 named Wilson School dean

The University named Harvard Law School and Kennedy School of Government professor Anne-Marie Slaughter '80 new dean of the Woodrow Wilson School yesterday. The appointment will take effect Sept. 1.

As a respected scholar of international law and global governance issues, Slaughter is expected to reinvigorate the Wilson School's international relations program while continuing support for existing programs.

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"It is fairly clear that the Princeton international relations faculty has decreased substantially and that has been one of Princeton's traditional strengths," Slaughter said. "I hope to rebuild the international relations faculty with economics and politics and, for that matter, sociology departments."

President Tilghman said she thought that Slaughter's scholarship, which includes heading the American Society of International Law, "brings renewed strength to international relations."

In addition to general leadership qualities, she added that the selection committee felt it was a "very good plus" that Slaughter focuses on international relations.

"There was a broad consensus that [international relations] is an area that we need to strengthen," Tilghman said.

The Wilson School international relations program has suffered recently from the concurrent departure of several faculty and the retirement of a few senior-level professors, such as Richard Falk and Robert Gilpin.

"As one of America's leading authorities on international law," said Larry Bartels, politics professor and chair of the search committee, "she will immediately raise the School's profile in that area and, we hope, help to recruit other outstanding scholars in the field of international relations."

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Many of the senior professors who remain are older than Slaughter — who majored in the Wilson School with a certificate in European cultural studies. From Princeton she went to Oxford University on a Daniel M. Sachs Memorial Scholarship and received her law degree from Harvard Law School. Her father was also a University alum.

"I believe that [Slaughter] will bring a spark to the School," said Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, professor in the Wilson School and director of the Lichtenstein Program on Self-Determination. Slaughter currently serves on the advisory board of the program.

"The Wilson School should be a school of public and international affairs, and somehow by various circumstances we have to a certain degree suffered in our national and international reputation, not in all areas, but especially the international relations section. It may take a lot more than naming faculty," said Dan speckgruber.

In a generally male-dominated world of international relations and international law, Slaughter has achieved renown, Danspeckgruber said. "I hope because of all of this, she will have enough horizon and flexibility to juggle the various interests and departments," he said.

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One of the primary challenges facing Slaughter will be hiring new faculty in international relations and continuing support for specialized programs, Tilghman said.

Slaughter said she hopes to build on the STEP policy program and use the University's science research facilities into policy studies of bioterrorism, biowarfare and biosafety. She also anticipates working closely with alumni and drawing on them to teach courses and give guest lectures.

As Tilghman spent much of her first year acquainting herself with the University community, Slaughter said she wants to spend time talking to students and assessing what students like and dislike.

Former dean Michael Rothschild originally slated his retirement for the end of the academic year but pushed it forward to the end of the fall semester after internal Wilson School disagreements about the fellows program of the Center for International Studies — a research arm of the Wilson School — and a desire to return to teaching.