Georgia Institute of Technology

Research Focus

Vicki L. Birchfield is an Associate Professor in The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech and Director of the study abroad program on the European Union and Transatlantic Relations. She served as Director of the European Union Center of Excellence from 2008 to 2011 and currently co-directs the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies. Dr. Birchfield received a DES from the Graduate Institute of International Studies from the University of Geneva, Switzerland and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Georgia. She is the author of Income Inequality in Capitalist Democracies: The Interplay of Values and Institutions (Penn State University Press 2008) and Toward a Common EU Energy Policy: Problems, Progress, and Prospects (Palgrave Macmillan 2011) co-edited with John S. Duffield. She has published articles in International Studies Quarterly, the European Journal of Political Research, the Review of International Studies, Globalizations, and the Review of International Political Economy. Her research and teaching specializations are European politics, the European Union, comparative politics, and international political economy. Other research and intellectual interests include the interplay of capitalism and democracy, social movements and the politics of globalization, and transatlantic relations. She is presently working on a book manuscript entitled The Transatlantic Values Debate and the Quest for Global Leadership and a co-authored project with Giovanna Dell’Orto on the politics of immigration in the EU and the US. She has been a visiting scholar at Sciences Po, Paris and the University of Bordeaux and has been bestowed the honor of “Chevalier dans Ordre national du Mérite” (Knight in the National Order of Merit) by the French government.

Courses Taught

GT 1000 Freshman Seminar
INTA 1001 Orientation to International Affairs
INTA 1003 Study Abroad Effectiveness
INTA 1200 American Government in Comparative Perspective
INTA 1200 (International Plan) American Government in Comparative and Global Perspective
INTA 2220/8803 Government and Politics of Western Europe
INTA 3202 Comparative Politics
INTA 4230 Seminar on the European Union
INTA 4121/6121 Seminar on European Security
INTA 4802 French-American Relations, Language-Across-Curriculum Course
INTA 4803/French 3801 France and the European Union, Language-Across-the
Curriculum Course (taught in French)
INTA 4803/8803 The Political Economy of European Integration
INTA 4803/8803 EU-US Relations
INTA 4803 France and Globalization, Language-Across-the-Curriculum course
INTA 4803 Government and Politics of Contemporary France
INTA 6202 Graduate Seminar in Comparative Politics
INTA 6302 Graduate Seminar in International Political Economy