Brown University has chosen a researcher from a Big Ten institution to be the next director of the Watson Institute for International Studies.

Michael D. Kennedy, currently director of the University of Michigan’s Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia and its Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies, will start work at the Watson Institute in July.

In addition to serving as the Watson Institute’s director, he also was appointed a professor of sociology and international studies.

“Michael Kennedy is a leading intellectual in matters that are of great significance to the Watson Institute’s mission, and he has a track record of collaborating across academic disciplines to find new answers to pressing global problems,” David I. Kertzer, Brown’s provost, said in a statement.

Kennedy succeeds Barbara Stallings, who stepped down in mid-2008 after two years as director. David Kennedy, Brown’s vice president for international affairs, has served as interim director since her resignation.

Michael Kennedy has held several positions at the University of Michigan, including vice provost for international affairs.

He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology from Davidson College and a doctoral degree in sociology from the University of North Carolina.

Kennedy has received grants and fellowships from a number of organizations, including the National Science Foundation, the American Council for Learned Societies, the Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Institute.

He also has won four awards for teaching while at the University of Michigan.

Created in the mid-1980s, the privately endowed Watson Institute encompasses several university programs. Its founding allowed for substantial expansion of faculty and curriculum and it has been recognized one of the country’s premier centers of international studies.

The institute is named for Thomas J. Watson Jr., a 1937 graduate of Brown, once its vice chancellor and also the major donor to the institute. Watson was once chairman of IBM. He also served as chairman of the general advisory council on arms control and disarmament, and ambassador to Moscow, in the Carter administration.

IBM donated $4 million to the institute in Watson’s name, more than one-quarter of the total original endowment of $15 million from all sources.