Michael Kennedy, director of the Watson Institute for International Studies, will step down at the end of the academic year, Provost David Kertzer ‘69 P'95 P'98 wrote in an email to faculty Friday.
Kertzer and the Watson Institute's Board of Overseers will choose an interim director while the University searches for a permanent director, Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations, wrote in an email to The Herald.
Four directors of the Watson Institute have stepped down in six years, which "suggests the importance of attending to some structural issues leading to so many changes," Kennedy, who is traveling in Kosovo, wrote in an email to The Herald Saturday. "My resignation allows the University administration and Watson's Board of Overseers to focus on those longstanding challenges."
He also cited a desire to return to teaching as a reason for his resignation. Kennedy wrote that he has "always been able to find a productive synergy" by synthesizing his obligations as a professor and scholar with his role as director of various programs, institutes and center for over 12 years. Prior to coming to the University, Kennedy served for 23 years at the University of Michigan as a professor of sociology and as the director of the school's Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia and its Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies.
"With the changes being undertaken by the administration, and the kind of director those changes require, I believe my abilities are more useful in other arenas," he wrote.
Kennedy will continue to serve as a professor of both international relations and sociology. He wrote he thinks focusing on teaching will allow him to resume involvement with institutes beyond the University, which he could not do as director. He plans to work with the Social Science Research Council, Soros's Open Society Institute and the World Economic Forum.
Kertzer was not available for further comment because he is in London.
Kennedy joined the University in summer 2009, after Vice President for International Affairs David Kennedy '76, who was also serving as interim director of the Watson Institute, resigned. The search for a permanent director of the Watson Institute began after former director Barbara Stallings, professor of international studies, stepped down in summer 2008.
In his email to faculty, Kertzer listed "important reforms" under Kennedy's tenure, citing increased funding for the Watson Institute, the arrival of new scholars and changes to the international relations and development studies concentrations. International relations is one of the University's largest concentrations.
Kennedy "has worked tirelessly to strengthen the Watson Institute and Brown," Kertzer wrote.
