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Professor Kum-Kum Bhavnani receives distinguished leadership award
Bhavnani provided critical leadership during the 2014 shootings in Isla Vista, UCSB’s neighboring community.
Kum-Kum Bhavnani / Image- Falu Bakrania/UC Santa Barbara
The University of California (UC) has awarded Kum-Kum Bhavnani the Oliver Johnson Award for Distinguished Leadership in the Academic Senate, which is the voice of the faculty in the university.
A distinguished professor in the Department of Sociology, Bhavnani formally retired from teaching on July 1. This recognition comes in light of her sustained leadership on campus, in the surrounding community, and across the UC system.
“I am honored and thrilled,” said India-born Bhavnani, who started teaching at UCSB in 1991. “I follow in the footsteps of many committed people, including UCSB’s own Duncan Mellichamp. During my three-plus decades at UCSB, my service has significantly enhanced my working life. It is also invigorating to see more faculty of color involved with the senate on campus and systemwide.”
Bhavnani expressed gratitude towards the campus community, stating, “It is not I who has done so much for the campus; rather it has been the campus community that has supported me unconditionally in all my work.”
Bhavnani’s involvement with the senate spans back to the mid-1990s, covering areas such as educational policy and planning, budgeting, legislative policies, and multiple chairships. She served as a two-term divisional chair from 2012 to 2016 and was vice chair and chair of the UC Systemwide Senate from 2018 to 2020.
Bhavnani provided critical leadership during the 2014 shootings in Isla Vista, UCSB’s neighboring community. She was instrumental in improving safety and aiding community healing by establishing an ad hoc committee on Isla Vista and coordinating memorial art projects and events.
As UCSB’s associate vice chancellor for global engagement, Bhavnani has collaborated with international networks like the Institute of International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund and Scholars at Risk, which support academics facing threats to their freedom and livelihood.
Although Bhavnani has retired, she remains active in various roles, including serving on the systemwide Fossil Free UC Task Force and the Chancellor’s Advisory Task Force on Childcare at UCSB. She will begin her new role as a research professor at UCSB in August.
Bradley Chmelka, a professor of chemical engineering and chair of the UC Santa Barbara Committee on Committees, lauded Bhavnani’s extensive service. “Bhavnani has an extraordinary record of academic senate service at UCSB, as well as the UC system more broadly. Beyond having served on a great number of committees, she has also regularly taken on leadership roles and been exceptionally involved in ways that far exceed the norm for senate faculty members.”
Bhavnani will receive the Oliver Johnson Award on July 24 at the annual Systemwide Academic Council dinner in Oakland, alongside UC Irvine professor emerita of marketing Mary C. Gilly.
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