Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi has named UC Davis’ first chief global strategist: Joanna Regulska, who holds a similar position at Rutgers and has extensive international experience as an academic in women’s and gender studies and the process of democratization.

Regulska

Regulska will also be vice provost of the recently renamed Office of Global Affairs, which carries on the largest part of the mission of what had previously been University Outreach and International Programs. As chief global strategist, she will report directly to the chancellor, and as vice provost she will report to the provost and executive vice chancellor. The appointments take effect Sept. 1.

“Joanna is truly a citizen of the world, respected for her research and public service in her native Poland and elsewhere,” Katehi said. “With a 30-year record as a teacher and program director at home and abroad, she knows the value of international education for our students and international partnerships for our university.”

Regulska has been vice president of International and Global Affairs at Rutgers since 2011 and developed and oversees the Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs, serving the Rutgers University system.

In 2014, just 2½ years after inception, the centers earned NAFSA’s (Association of International Educators) prestigious Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization.

Soon Regulska will bring her expertise to UC Davis, which is also expanding its international reach. The new Global Affairs office, with its singular mission, is taking the lead.

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter said: “Joanna impressed me and the search committee with her record of service and achievement overseas. We are confident she will lead us to even greater opportunities around the world and at the same time contribute to our strength in women’s and gender studies.”

Hexter added: “Chancellor Katehi and I are grateful to Interim Vice Provost Adrienne Martín, who has contributed much to the evolution of Global Affairs and will continue to oversee it until Joanna’s arrival.”

A focus on women’s agency

In her research and teaching, Regulska concentrates on women’s agency, political activism, grass-roots mobilization and the construction of women’s political spaces.

“Over the last 30 years,” she wrote in her curriculum vitae, “I have worked with many women’s and feminist groups in central and east Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia on questions of political participation and women’s rights. I have also conducted extensive work on the impact of political and economic restructuring on the process of democratization, on forced migration, on citizens’ participation, and on decentralization in central and east Europe and the Caucasus.”

Regulska holds a Master of Arts degree in geography from the University of Warsaw and a doctorate in geography from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Her affiliation with Rutgers dates back 33 years, starting as an assistant professor of geography in 1982. Today at Rutgers she is a professor of geography (department chair, 1999-2000), and women and gender studies (chair, 2001-07).

Regulska founded Rutgers’ Local Democracy in Poland Program (later renamed Local Democracy Partnership Program) in 1989 and has served as the program’s director from the outset. The program has conducted several international-comparative research projects in the areas of gender studies, participatory politics, Third Sector and public administration.

Prior to becoming vice president of International and Global Affairs, she served as Rutgers’ first director and then first dean of International Programs, School of Arts and Sciences, 2006-11. She was a participant in the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program in South Korea in 2013.

Regulska received Rutgers’ Presidential Award for Distinguished Public Service in 1996, and is the recipient of a number of Rutgers Merit Awards.

She is a recurrent visiting professor at the Center for Social Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw (since 1986); and Ph.D. director of the Gender Module at the Center for Social Sciences, Tbilisi State University, Georgia (since 2010).

Awards and publications

Regulska received Rutgers’ Presidential Award for Distinguished Public Service in 1996, and is the recipient of a number of Rutgers Merit Awards.

She is a recurrent visiting professor at the Center for Social Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw (since 1986); and Ph.D. director of the Gender Module at the Center for Social Sciences, Tbilisi State University, Georgia (since 2010).

She is the recipient of three Polish national awards, in 1996, 2004 and 2014, for her contributions to government reform, building democracy and civic society, advancing the place of women in politics, and strengthening international cooperation.

In 2011, Tbilisi State University gave her an honorary degree in recognition of the importance of her research and work in the area of women’s and gender studies.

Regulska has published more than 90 articles and chapters, and has presented more than 100 papers at national and international meetings of learned societies.

Her books include:

• From Cold War to the EU: Women and Gender in Contemporary Europe — From Cold War to European Union (co-author), 2012
• Cooperation or Conflict: State, the European Union and Women (co-author), in Polish, 2008
• Women and Citizenship in Central and East Europe (co-author), 2006

Follow Dateline UC Davis on Twitter.