Professor Dr Tatiana Zimenkova

Professor Dr habil. Tatiana Zimenkova has held the office of Vice-President for Internationalisation and Diversity since September 2019 and has been the Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Society and Economics of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences since 2018. Her goals include further strengthening and developing HSRW’s international character and strategy as well as creating more visibility and awareness for diversity-related issues. Since 2020, she, along with student representatives, has helped to organise and launch the University’s annual Days of Antidiscrimination and other actions connected to the worldwide International Day against Homo-, Bi-, Inter- and Transphobia. She envisions an inclusive university where each person is empowered and able to achieve their goals. At the same time, her aim is also to enable all members of the University to participate in  decision-making processes and campus community.

Prior to joining Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Professor Zimenkova was an assistant professor in the Centre of Expertise for Teacher Training and Teaching and Education Research (DoKoLL) at the Technical University of Dortmund, where she taught the subjects of diversity and differentiation in teaching methodologies and conducted empirical research into teaching and schools. She earned her post-doctoral Habilitation with professorial teaching qualifications for sociology at the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Bielefeld in 2016 and works as a consultant for diversity issues in government agencies in Germany. From 2005 to 2012, Professor Zimenkova was the appointed representative of the German Director of the Centre for German and European Studies (ZDES) in Bielefeld, Germany / St. Petersburg, Russia. After earning her doctorate in 2006 from the University of Bielefeld, she taught and conducted empirical research in the areas of political participation and community education. Born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Professor Zimenkova began her academic career with an undergraduate degree from St. Petersburg State University in Russia.

Professor Zimenkova is an active contributor to various extramural organisations and societies, for example the European Sociological Association and the Society for Political Didactics and Political Education for Youths and Adults.