Vivien A. Schmidt is Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration, Professor and Director of the Center for International Relations at Boston University, and Visiting Professor at Sciences Po, Paris. She received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and attended the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris. She has been a professor at the University of Massachusetts/Boston; visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, the European University Institute in Florence, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, the Universities of Paris V and X, the Universities of Lille I and II; and visiting scholar at CRASSH Institute, Cambridge University, at Nuffield College, Oxford University, and at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University, where she is currently a faculty affiliate and chair of the EU studies group.
Professor Schmidt has written widely in the areas of European political economy, institutions and democracy, and political theory. Her books include Democracy in Europe (Oxford 2006), Public Discourse and Welfare State Reform (V. Schmidt et al.) (Mets & Schilt, 2005); Policy Change and Discourse in Europe (co-ed with C. Radaelli-- Routledge 2005); The Futures of European Capitalism (Oxford 2002), Welfare and Work in the Open Economy (2 vol. co-ed with F. W. Scharpf, Oxford 2000); From State to Market? The Transformation of French Business and Government (Cambridge l996); and Democratizing France (Cambridge l990). In addition, she has published over one hundred articles and chapters in books. Articles have appeared in such journals as the Annual Review of Political Science, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Daedalus, Economy and Society, Governance, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, New Political Economy, Perspectives on Politics, Revue Française de Science Politique, Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, West European Politics, and World Politics.
Professor Schmidt is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions. She received an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Brussels (ULB) (Dec. 2008). She was named to the Franqui Interuniversity Chair, the most prestigious award in Belgium for foreign scholars, held at the Free University of Brussels and the Catholic University of Louvain (Jan.-June 2007); and was awarded a CNRS Visiting Researcher Fellowship to the Center for the Study of Politics (CEVIPOF) at Sciences Po in Paris (July-Dec. 2007). She has been decorated by the French government as a Chevalier in the Order of the Palmes Académiques; honored by the University of Massachusetts Boston with the Distinguished Scholar Award; and given a special award for her book, Democratizing France, at the Gaston Defferre Prize Ceremony in Marseilles. She has also held many grants and fellowships, including a Rockefeller Foundation Residency grant for the Bellagio Center, a Fulbright EU Research Award held in the UK, a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar Award in France, and a pre-dissertation fellowship under the Fulbright-Hays program.
Professor Schmidt is past head of the European Union Studies Association-USA. At Boston University she is director of the Center for International Relations,and directs European Studies activities. In this capacity, she received a EU Commission grant “Getting to Know Europe” in conjunction with the Institute for Human Sciences. In addition, she was founding Director of the European Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts. She also directed the Center for Democracy and Development of the McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University, which involved lectures, consulting, and running grant programs in Francophone Africa and Southern Africa. She also consults widely in the US and Europe on issues related to has consulted widely in the US and Europe on issues related to European government, business and US-EU relations.
