Vivien A. Schmidt is Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Boston University, and Founding Director of BU’s Center for the Study of Europe. Her research focuses on European political economy, institutions, democracy, and political theory. Recent books include Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political Economy (co-edited, 2013), Debating Political Identity and Legitimacy in the European Union (co-edited, 2011), Democracy in Europe (2006)—named in 2015 by the European Parliament as one of the ‘100 Books on Europe to Remember’—and The Futures of European Capitalism (2002). Recent honors, awards, fellowships, and grants include an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Brussels (ULB), the Belgian Franqui Interuniversity Chair for foreign scholars, a research fellowship from the European Commission (DG ECFIN), and a EU Commission HORIZON 2020 Grant: (ENLIGHTEN: ‘European Legitimacy in Governing through Hard Times: The Role of European Networks¹–as a key researcher attached to the Free University of Brussels).

Dr. Saprio served as Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 2007-2015. Dean Sapiro earned her A.B. with High Honors in Government from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts (1972), where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Michigan in 1976 and, that same year, joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin – Madison as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and the newly established Women’s Studies Program. When she finished her service there in 2007, she was the Sophonisba P. Breckinridge Professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies. She was also a Faculty Affiliate of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Post-Secondary Education WISCAPE. She was Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin – Madison from 2002 through December, 2006 and served as Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs from November 2005 through March 2006. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of Clark University from 2001-07.

Kaija Schilde is an Assistant Professor at the Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies. Her research interests involve European and transatlantic security, the political economy of defense and security markets and industries, EU lobbies and interest groups, and the role of private nonstate actors in national and international security.

Her book manuscript, Embedded in Brussels: the Political Economy of European Security, is an investigation of the relationship between EU institutions and interest groups, with a focus on security and defense interests, including the formation of EU internal and external security policies such as Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and immigration and border security. Her other research investigates the causes and consequences of military spending cuts, defense reform and force transformation, arms exports under conditions of dependence and austerity, and the international diffusion of domestic and border security practices. She has a policy background in defense reform and transatlantic security.

Rosella Cappella Zielinski is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston University who specializes in study the political economy of national security.  Her book, How States Pay for Wars, explores how state capacity and leadership preferences shape war finance.  Her other works investigates the relationship between war taxation and public opinion, defense spending under austerity, and the relationship between economic growth and military spending. In addition to academic research, Cappella Zieilnski is committed to promoting the study of political economy of national security. She is the co-director of the Boston University’s Pardee School Project for the Political Economy of Security and co-founder of the Boston Area Political Economy of Security Working Group