FYSA Georgia Tech-Europe
Program staff
Faculty Director
Dr. Vicki Birchfield
Professor and Co-Director for the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies
Vicki L. Birchfield is a Professor in The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech, Co-Director of the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies and Director of the study abroad program on the European Union and Transatlantic Relations. Dr. Birchfield received a DES from the Graduate Institute of International Studies from the University of Geneva, Switzerland (1993) and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Georgia (2000).
Assistant Director
John P. Taylor, Ph.D.
Visiting Lecturer, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
Dr. John P Taylor is Assistant Director of First Year Semester Abroad (FYSA) and a Visiting Lecturer in the Writing and Communication Program at Georgia Tech. He received his PhD in Film and Media Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and his BA in English from the University of Minnesota (the state where he grew up).
His research interests and teaching interests are typically at the intersection of visual media and infrastructure/civil engineering, and he is currently working on a book about the impact of the U.S. Interstate Highway System on U.S. culture through the lens of film and television history.
Outside of work he enjoys playing guitar and running, and he has a first-degree black belt in Judo. His favorite films are Harakiri (1962, Masaki Kobayashi), Do the Right Thing (1989, Spike Lee), and Barton Fink (1991, Joel & Ethan Coen).