ProfessorNatalia Chaban

Professor Natalia Chaban focuses her interdisciplinary research on cognitive and semiotic aspects of political and media discourses, image and perceptions studies within the EU and IR contexts, and public diplomacy and political communication. Her international recognition is demonstrated by consistent leadership of large multicultural, multinational research teams with direct engagement and outcomes for policymakers. A leader of a number of transnational research projects supported by the European Commission, EU member states, and NATO, Natalia widely publishes including articles in high impact journals such as the Journal of Common Market Studies, Cooperation and Conflict, Journal of European Integration, Foreign Policy Analysis, Mobilities, Comparative European Politics. Having researched Ukraine since independence, she focuses her research on how the current war has impacted communication, expectations, and attitudes internationally, specializing in crisis, youth, cultural, and heritage aspects in EU-Ukraine public diplomacy. Natalia's new research interests include science diplomacy, TechPlomacy, and digital diplomacy in the contexts of increasingly geopolitical world and its securitisation, as well as the role of emotions in shaping international perceptions and expectations.

Her 2024 award of the Royal Society of New Zealand Mason Durie Medal recognises Professor Chaban as the nation’s pre-eminent social scientist with outstanding contribution which has originated in a New Zealand environment and had an international impact.  In 2025, the UC Council awarded Professor Chaban UC Research Medal in recognition of her sustained excellence in research, teaching, and innovation. In 2024, she was awarded the UC Faculty of Arts Research Award in Humanities, Social Sciences or Creative Arts. Professor Chaban is a twice awarded Jean Monnet Chair (in 2011 and 2018), a highly competitive, prestigious title awarded by the European Union to selected leading researchers in recognition of research and teaching contribution to the field of EU integration studies in the world.

Professor Chaban is a director of UC research centre Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum.  She is the President, Ukrainian Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand; fouding co-editor, peer-reviewed Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies (now with Scopus, Q2), and a member of editorial boards of Journal of European Integration, European Security, European Foreign Affairs Review, Media, War and Conflict, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, and Cognition, Communication, Discourse.

Visiting Professor, Vienna Diplomatic Academy, Austria (2025-present)

Visiting Professor, College of Europe at Natolin, Warsaw, Poland (2023-present)

Visiting Professor, Sciences Po Grenoble, France (2024)

Visiting Professor, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania (2019-2022)

Adjunct Professor, Cherkasy National University, Ukraine (2014-present)

In 2023-2026, Professor Chaban leads Work Package 5 "Strategic Communication" (30 researchers) within Jean Monnet Policy Network “Challenges and Opportunities for EU Heritage Diplomacy in Ukraine” (HER-UKR).  The Network, supported by the European Commission, includes 15 partners from around the world.  In 2024-2028, she is an invited Associate Partner within Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network Contested EU Foreign Policy in an Era of Geopolitics (EU-FOG).  The Network includes 17 partners from around the world. In 2025-2030, Professor Chaban is an invited Associate Partner in the “Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree European Politics and Society: Vaclav Havel".