Vivien A. Schmidt is Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Europe at Boston University. Schmidt received an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Brussels (ULB) in 2008, was awarded the Franqui Interuniversity Chair, the most prestigious award in Belgium for foreign scholars, in 2008, and was named a Jean Monnet Chair by the European Union Commission in 2001. She was also 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.