Four new scholars have been appointed to the senior faculty of the Kennedy School, Dean Joseph S. Nye announced on Commencement Day.

Coupled with the six faculty members already appointed this year, these new professors contribute to what many scholars call a wholesale revitalization of the Kennedy School.

Jane Mansbridge, a political scientist from Northwestern University, and Dani Rodrik '79, an economist and international affairs expert from Columbia University, will join the faculty this fall. David M. Romer and Christina D. Romer, two economists from the University of California at Berkeley, will come to Cambridge in the fall of 1997.

The new professors said they see a new energy in the Kennedy School, which makes it a far more exciting place than in previous years.

Rodrik said he has been affiliated with the Kennedy School in the past and is fairly familiar with it. During his years at Columbia, he said, the school has been rejuvenated in a number of ways which make it far more desirable to him, leading to his decision to accept Harvard's offer.

"The international concerns of the school have become better institutionalized and the composition of faculty has become younger, more attuned to the research and academic needs of the school alongside the professional dimension," he said.

Rodrik said he will teach one course on economic reforms in the fall and one on international economic policy in the spring.

He said he will continue his research on economic reform in developing and transitional economics and the consequences of globalization.

Rodrik has done research in parts of the globe ranging from East Asia to the Middle East to Eastern Europe and said he will continue work on a book he is writing, tentatively titled Has International Economic Integration Gone Too Far?

Mansbridge is an expert on public policy and the practice of democracy and is currently working on research concerning political equality.

Much of her work has also concerned gender theory. For example, she has studied the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and how gender affects democratic interaction within groups.

According to Jonathan D. Casper, the chair of Northwestern's Political Science department, Mansbridge was a prominent and active member of the Northwestern community who was greatly respected by students and faculty alike.

He said she is a first-rate professor who was a popular choice among graduate students as a dissertation advisor.

"Her departure was a great loss for Northwestern," Casper said. "She was a central figure in the department and a very important figure on campus, active with the Organization of Women Faculty and a significant player in campus affairs."

The Kennedy School announced earlier this semester that Mansbridge's husband, Christopher Jencks, will join the faculty in the fall.

The Romers also form a husband-wife team, working in macroeconomics and economic history. Both professors said they found the Kennedy School's renewed emphasis on macroeconomics heartening and look forward to helping to strengthen that area of study at the school.