In memory of Joanna Renc-Roe

Our colleague Joanna Renc-Roe has left us, much too early. It is with great sadness we write these words, but also with warm memories and gratitude for having known Joanna, her work, and her contributions to the world of SoTL. Joanna worked at the Center for Teaching and Learning at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Her academic interests concerned professional development, internationalisation, and the relation between policy and practice in higher education. She was member of the editorial board of Teaching and Learning Inquiry, and a regular attendee at the ISSOTL-conferences.

We particularly remember and appreciate that in her ISSOTL-keynote 2012 in Hamilton, Canada, she problematized the fact that scholarship of teaching and learning does not translate into most European languages – a matter of fact that we continuously need to bear in mind. She was an important team member in initiating and planning the first EuroSOTL Conference in Cork, Ireland, in 2015. She had served for over 5 years as an external advisor for the Irish National Academy for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, and before that as a valued member of the CASTL Campus initiative on Graduate Education.

Joanna was a very intelligent, warm, generous and humorous person. She had lots of energy and was always great to have conversations with, about life in general and academic life in particular. We envision her now sitting at the waterfront at Malta, where she loved spending time, enjoying the lemon trees and the sunshine.  We will miss her deeply.

Katarina Mårtensson, Torgny Roxå, and Bettie Higgs

Click here to read the Central European University Center for Teaching and Learning’s remembrance of Joanna Renc-Roe.