Law School Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter will leave Harvard at the end of the academic year to lead Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton announced yesterday.

Slaughter will join the ranks of the Princeton faculty as dean of the Woodrow Wilson school and professor in the Department of Politics in September.

The Woodrow Wilson School, founded in 1930, is a center for study and research in public affairs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Slaughter, who studied at the Woodrow Wilson School during her undergraduate years at Princeton, said in a statement released yesterday that she was “thrilled” to return as dean.

“I hope to help rebuild Princeton’s traditional strengths in international affairs and to ensure that the school plays a central role in addressing a new generation of economic, political, scientific and technological challenges facing the country and the world,” she said.

Slaughter is currently Harvard’s Armstrong professor of international, foreign and comparative law and a professor at the Kennedy School of Government. She also serves as the director of graduate and international legal studies at the Law School and is the founder and faculty director of the Harvard Colloquim on International Affairs.

Known for her inter-disciplinary work in international relations theory and international law, Slaughter’s research and publications have focused on such topics as international tribunals and the relationship between international law and domestic judicial systems.

University President Lawrence H. Summers lauded Slaughter’s contributions to Harvard yesterday.

“Anne-Marie Slaughter has made outstanding contributions to Harvard as a member of our law faculty and as a leader in international studies. She is a person of real intellectual vitality, admired for her scholarship, her teaching, and her university citizenship,” Summers said. “Saddened as I am by the prospect of her leaving, I know she will make the most of this excellent new leadership opportunity, and all of us here wish her the very best.”

Slaughter, who completed her undergraduate work in European cultural studies at Princeton, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985. She also holds two degrees from Oxford University—a Masters and a Doctorate in Philosophy.

In a statement released yesterday, Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman said Slaughter was a perfect candidate to take the helm of the Woodrow Wilson School.

“As a leader and scholar, Anne-Marie Slaughter is well prepared to build upon te Woodrow Wilson School’s strengths in scholarship, in teaching and in preparing students fir careers ub public service,” Tilghman said. “Along with great vitality and enthusiasm, she brings a deep background in international affairs, a strong commitment to other areas of public policy and an interdisciplinary approach to her work.”

Slaughter will replace Associate Princeton Dean James Trussell, who has served as acting dean of the Woodrow Wilson School since February, when Dean Michael Rothschil stepped down to return to his teaching and research.

Slaughter said in her statement that she looked forward to the challenge of running the Woodrow Wilson School.

“I am sad to be leaving Harvard and will miss my colleagues and friends at the Law School abd throughout the University,” she said. “But Princeton has offered me a unique opportunity—to lead a public policy school with a strong tradition in international affairs.”

Slaughter is married to Professor of Government Andrew Moravcsik, who also serves as the director of Harvard’s European Union Center.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.