Prof. Dr Ummu Salma Bava is Professor of European Studies and Jean Monnet Chair in the EU, Security, Peace and Conflict Resolution (EU-SPCR). She was Chairperson, Centre for European Studies (November 2017- November 2019 and July 2009 - July 2011), School of International Studies; Director, UGC Europe Area Studies Programme (November 2011- March 2014) and Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies (December 2012 – December 2014), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She is a guest faculty at the Foreign Service Institute, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.
With over thirty years of teaching and research and administrative experience, she is one of the leading Indian experts on contemporary Europe, EU, Germany and India with a focus on domestic and foreign and security policy. She also works on regional integration and organization, emerging
powers, international politics, global governance, norms and peace and conflict resolution and higher education. She has numerous publications and her latest articles are published in EU-India Relations - The Strategic Partnership in Light of the European Union’s Global Strategy (Springer
2021) Regionalism and Multilateralism: Politics, Economics, Culture. (Routledge, 2020); Challenges in Europe. Indian Perspectives. (Springer 2019), China, the European Union and the Developing World (Cheltenham, UK, 2015), The EU’s foreign Policy. What kind of Power and Diplomatic Action? (Ashgate, 2013); From BRIC to BRICS (Johannesburg: Institute for Global Dialogue and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2011), Does South Asia Exist?: Prospects for Regional Integration (Brookings, 2010); Regional Leadership in the Global System. Ideas, Interests and Strategies of Regional Powers (Ashgate 2010); Partnerships for Effective Multilateralism: EU Relations with Brazil, China, India and Russia (Chaillot Paper – No. 109, May 2008).
She is International Member, Academic Advisory Board, German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany (November 2014-17; 2017-) and was member of the Research Advisory Council of Germany’s leading Think Tank - Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin, Germany (June 2013- 2019). Prof Bava was selected by the European Commission for the Jean Monnet Chair, recognizing her as one of the leading experts on European Union in India. She was also selected and awarded in the first round of the UGC- DAAD IGP Project 2016-2020 and
was part of the EU funded FP7 Marie Curie ITN Network – PRIMO (2013-2017), lead by the University of Hamburg, Germany. She has been conferred with different Fellowships and awards and she has been recognised by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2005) and the US
Department of State (2007). She is fluent in English, Hindi and German.
Prof. Bava was conferred in January 2012 with Germany’s highest civilian honour - the prestigious Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany.