The University announced Wednesday that Jorge I. Domínguez, a scholar of Latin America, will serve as its first vice provost for international affairs.

Currently in his tenth year as director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs—the largest international research center in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—Domínguez will bring a wealth of administrative and academic experience to his post. He has written extensively on international and domestic politics in Latin America and worked as a series editor for PBS program “Crisis in Central America.”

University Provost Steven E. Hyman, who made the appointment, said in a press release that the newly created post was designed to “address an important need at Harvard for leadership, coordination, and oversight in this crucial area.”

Domínguez, the Dillon professor of international affairs, will oversee University-wide initiatives such as international research collaborations and the expansion of undergraduate opportunities for international study.

These tasks will not be new ground for Domínguez, who chaired the Provost’s Task Force on International Issues at Harvard in 2004 and currently chairs the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. Domínguez will step down from leading the Weatherhead Center in late June, according to the press release.

Domínguez could not be reached for comment yesterday.

“Under his leadership, the Weatherhead has really expanded in the types of theses they fund,” said Gabriela Peña ’08, who took Domínguez’s class, Historical Studies B-64, “The Cuban Revolution, 1956-1971,” this past fall.

Previous recipients of Weatherhead Center funding were mostly government and economics concentrators, but students in other disciplines such as social anthropology also receive financial support now, Peña said.

In his new position, Domínguez’s office will provide students with information about the University’s international activities and act as a resource for its international students and scholars. He will also be a senior adviser to the Faculty dean on international studies.

Since arriving at Harvard in 1966 for his MA and later his PhD, Domínguez has taught in the government department for over 30 years. He has also been awarded a Harvard College Professorship.

Domínguez’s appointment rounds out the three vice-provost positions created by the University last year for international affairs, research policy, and faculty development and diversity.

—Staff writer Lulu Zhou can be reached at luluzhou@fas.harvard.edu.