Curriculum Vitae:

Dr. Simona Kukovič is an Associate Professor of Political Science and works as a lecturer at the School of Advanced Social Studies. Dr. Kukovič’s area of expertise is political and administrative leadership at the local level. She also conducts research in the areas of leadership, comparative regional and local government, local democracy and participation, public administration, and administrative and political processes and institutions. She is Slovenian representative to the COST networks, a member of the executive board of the Central European Political Science Association (CEPSA) and general editor of the international scientific journal Journal of Comparative Politics.

Dr. Kukovič has been a visiting professor/researcher at several universities, including DeMontfort University, Leicester, UK (2015), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA (2018), Paris Lodron University Salzburg, Austria (2018-2019), and Montana State University, Montana, USA (2022). She was the head of the postdoctoral project entitled “Leading the Locality: Bureaucratisation of Politics or Politicisation of Bureaucracy?” (2018-2020) and five bilateral projects between the Republic of Slovenia and the USA, Montenegro, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In 2022, she received the title of Jean Monnet Chair, within the framework of which she also founded the Summer Leadership Academy.

She is (co-)author of several scientific publications, including the monographs “Slovenian Politics and the State” (Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield, USA) and “Political System of Slovenia” (Sampark, Calcutta, India). She is the editor of a book entitled “The rise of populism in Central and Eastern Europe”, published by Edward Elgar, UK. In Slovenia she is known for her academic work in the field of local leadership and local self-government. She is also the creator of the “Municipal Administrative Capacity” quality standard.

The entire bibliography is available in the Cobiss/Sicris system (www.sicris.si) under the researcher’s registration number 33786.