On Wednesday, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) announced that President Emeritus Gerhard Casper will serve as the intermediary director for the Institute for the 2012-2013 academic year. Casper’s term as Stanford’s ninth president began in 1992 and ended in 2000. Casper has been a senior fellow at FSI since 2000.

Prior to his move to Stanford, Casper taught law at the University of Chicago, where he served as both provost and dean. He also was an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. His academic research includes constitutional law and legal theory.

Casper will replace current director Coit Blacker, who plans to take a one-year sabbatical leave. Blacker has served as director of FSI for the last nine years. He will return to teaching at Stanford after his sabbatical. Among Casper’s goals as new director of FSI is to initiate a search for a permanent director of the Institute.

— Marianne LeVine