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Research Urban and Regional Studies Institute SEA ASEAN

Biography and CV of the Director

Prof. Ronald L. Holzhacker
University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Biography

Prof. dr. Ronald Holzhacker, University of Groningen, the Netherlands, is Professor of Comparative Multilevel Governance and Regional Structure in the Faculty of Spatial Science, Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, and also teaches in the Faculty of Arts, Department of International Relations and International Organization. He holds a PhD from the University of Michigan in political science, and a JD from the University of Minnesota Law School. He is broadly interested in questions of governance, sustainable cities, resiliency, climate adaptation, human rights, and the interaction between civil society organizations and institutions in political systems. He is founding Director of the Groningen Research Centre for Southeast Asia and ASEAN (SEA ASEAN) located in Groningen and Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

He leads an inter-disciplinary team of scholars and 32 PhD researchers engaged in theoretically driven comparative research focused on governance, societal impact, and sustainable society in Southeast Asia. He is published in such journals as Law & Policy, Comparative European Politics, Journal of European Integration, European Union Politics, Nations and Nationalism, Party Politics, Journal of Legislative Studies, European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance, Journal of Asian Economic Integration, Contemporary Southeast Asia . and the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration .

The SEA ASEAN Centre is part of an Erasmus+ grant from the EU as part of the BRECIL consortium to improve the capacity to conduct social science research in Southeast Asia (681.035 Euro). Specifically, BRECIL aims to develop human and social capital to facilitate individual learning and institutional mechanisms in social science research in higher education institutions in Malaysia and Laos. The grant will allow SEA ASEAN to play a key role in facilitating capacity building and research governance in the region.

He is co-editor of numerous books over the past decade focused on Southeast Asia, including Decentralization and Governance in Indonesia (New York: Springer 2016), Sustainable Development Goals in Southeast Asia: Regional and National Approaches (Leiden, Singapore, Boston: Brill 2019), and Challenges of Governance, Development and Regional Integration in Southeast Asia and ASEAN (NY: Springer 2021). A book launch and conference was organized in October 2018 in Brussels, with key-note speakers from the EU, ASEAN, and UN ESCAP, and professors and PhD candidates from across the region. He is a frequent visitor to SE Asia, delivering lectures and meeting with scholars at the SE Asian and ASEAN centres at the leading universities in the region.

He is currently organizing a major international conference ‘Transformative Futures: International Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Challenges of Implementation in Cities in Southeast Asia’ (Clim/Sust SE Asia 2023). The conference and graduate workshop is organized by the University of Groningen, Thammasat University (Thailand) and Gadjah Mada University (Indonesia) to take place in Bangkok March 14-17, 2023. The conference is inter-disciplinary in scope, and focuses on societal impact of research with outreach to public officials and policymakers from the Netherlands, Thailand, Indonesia, as well as the EU and ASEAN.

Last modified:04 April 2024 12.56 p.m.