Terri Givens grew up in Spokane, Washington and enjoys spending time in the outdoors. She earned her BA in International Relations from Stanford University and received her MA and PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. She began her academic career at the University of Washington in Seattle from 1999 to 2003. She went on to serve as a professor at the University of Texas at Austin from 2003 to 2015, where she founded the Center for European Studies and was Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Curriculum and International Affairs. As Provost at Menlo College from 2015 to 2018, Givens led efforts to develop programs for first generation students, update curriculum and create infrastructure for evidence-based assessment. Givens was the Provost’s Academic Lead and Advisor on McGill’s Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism from 2021-2023 and most recently served as Associate Dean for EDI in the Faculty of Arts at McGill University.

Givens’ research and teaching focuses on comparative politics in Europe and the US, including immigration policy, the politics of race, and anti-discrimination policy. She conducted ground-breaking research on the radical right in Europe in the 1990s and early 2000s, including a focus on the role of gender and race in electoral politics. Her current research project focuses on the intersection of migration and race politics in a global context.

Givens is the author/editor of books and articles on immigration policy, European politics, and the politics of race. She is well known for her memoir, Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides, where she combines her own experiences with the political, offering practical steps to call out racism and bring about radical social change. Her most recent book is The Roots of Racism: The Politics of White Supremacy in the US and Europe.

Books

Forthcoming: Reckoning: Creating Positive Change Through Radical Empathy, Policy Press, 2025.

The Roots of Racism: The Politics of White Supremacy in the US and Europe, Bristol University Press, 2022.

Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides. Bristol University Press/Policy Press, February 2021

Immigration in the 21^st Century: The Comparative Politics of Immigration Policy, with Pete Mohanty and Rachel Navarre, Routledge Press, May 2020. Currently under revision for 2^nd edition.

Legislating Equality: The Politics of Antidiscrimination Policy in Europe, with Rhonda Evans Case, Oxford University Press, April 2014.

Immigrant Politics: Race and Representation in Western Europe, edited volume with Rahsaan Maxwell. Lynne Rienner Publishers, March 2012.

Immigration Policy and Security: U.S., European, and Commonwealth Perspectives, edited volume with Gary Freeman and David Leal. Routledge, August 2008.

Voting Radical Right in Western Europe, Cambridge University Press, October 2005.

Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

“Immigrant Integration.” Chapter for Introduction to International Migration: Population Movements in the 21st Century with Ayca Arkilic and Elizabeth S. Davis, edited by Jeannette Money and Sarah P Lockhart, Routledge Press, May 2021.

“Regional Governance of Migration Policy.” Chapter for Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, edited by Tanja Boerzel and Thomas Risse, 2015.

“High-Skilled Migration: A New Way Forward for Europe, The United States and the World” with Andrew Rottas in Global Migration Issues: Myths and Realities, Praeger, May 2015.

“The Impact of the European Union’s Racial Equality Directive on Anti-discrimination Policy and Black People in France” in Visible Invisible Minority: Confronting Afrophobia and Advancing Equality for People of African Descent and Black Europeans in Europe European Network Against Racism, Anti-racism in Focus 2, December 2014.

“Comparative Perspectives: Race in Europe.” The Oxford Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Politics in the United States, edited by David Leal, Taeku Lee and Mark Sawyer, November 2014, Oxford Handbooks Online:

“Nationalism vs. Multiculturalism:  European Identity and the Impact of the Radical Right on Antidiscrimination Policy in Europe.” Chapter for Europe’s Contending Identities: Supranationalism, Ethnoregionalism, Religion, and New Nationalism, edited by Andrew C. Gould and Anthony Messina, Cambridge University Press, Spring 2014, 203-218.

“The Radical Right and Immigration in an Era of Economic Crisis” Brown Journal of World Affairs 19.2, Spring/Summer 2013.

“Party Politics and Public Opinion on Immigration and Anti-Discrimination Policy:

Implications for Immigrant Integration” with Ernest McGowen.  Chapter for Immigration and Public Opinion edited by David Leal and Randall Hansen. Routledge Press, January 2013, 271-285.

“Gendered Jobs: Integrating Immigrants versus Controlling Immigration in the European Union” with Melanie Hughes, Susana Crage and Pete Mohanty. Politics and Gender, 9 (2013), 31–60.

“Effects of Migration.” Chapter for Oxford Handbook of the Politics of International Migration, edited by Dan Tichenor and Marc Rosenblum. March 2012.

“Der Stand der Antidiskriminierungsgesetze in Europa,” with Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan in Bertelsmann Stiftung (ed.) Wer gehört dazu? Zugehörigkeit als Voraussetzung für Integration” Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2011, 136-158.

“Legal Opportunity Structure:  The Starting Line Group and the Politics of the Racial Equality Directive” with Rhonda Evans Case. Journal of Common Market Studies, March 2010.

“Crossing Political Divides: Media Use and Managing Complex Political Identities” with Lance Bennett in Stefaan Walgrave and Dieter Rucht, eds. The World Says No to War:  Demonstrations against the War on Iraq, Minnesota University Press, 2010, 215-238.

“Immigration and Anti-discrimination Policy: Regulating the ‘New Face of Europe’” with Rhonda Evans Case, Adam Luedtke and Carrie Humphreys. Migrants and Minorities:  The European Response, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010.

“Communication and Political Mobilization: Digital Media Use and Protest Organization among Anti-Iraq War Demonstrators in the U.S.^” with Lance Bennett and Christian Breunig. Political Communication, 25:269-289, 2008.

“Immigration and Immigrant Integration in Europe:  Empirical Research” Annual Review of Political Science edited by Nelson Polsby, June 2007 (volume 10).

“Immigration and Immigrant Integration:  Context and Comparison” in Changing Identities and Evolving Values:  Is There Still a Transatlantic Community? ed. Esther Brimmer, Washington, D.C.: Center for Transatlantic Relations, 2006.

“European Immigration Policies in Comparative Perspective:  Issue Salience, Partisanship and Immigrant Rights” Comparative European Politics, February 2005, with Adam Luedtke.   Selected by the editors as a top ten article published in the first five volumes of Comparative European Politics.

“The Politics of EU Immigration Policy: Institutions, Salience and Harmonization” Policy Studies Journal, February 2004, with Adam Luedtke.

“The Radical Right Gender Gap.” Comparative Political Studies, February 2004. Reprinted in The Populist Radical Right, edited by Cas Mudde, Taylor and Francis, October 2016.

“EU Immigration Policy:  From Intergovernmentalism to Reluctant Harmonization,” in The State of the European Union, Volume 6 (2003): Law, Politics and Society. Oxford University Press, 2003, with Adam Luedtke.

“The Role of Socio-Economic Factors in the Success of Extreme Right Parties,” in Shadows over Europe: The Development and Impact of the Extreme Right in Western Europe, eds. Martin Schain, Aristide Zolberg and Patrick Hossay.   Palgrave, 2002.

Fellow, Kolleg-Forschergruppe “Transformative Power of Europe,” Freie Universitaet, Berlin, Germany, June 2010 – October 2018

Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. June-July 2012.

Visiting Scholar, Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales, Sciences-Po, Paris, France, June 7-18, 2010.

Distinguished Scholar Alumni, Stanford University, May 2-3, 2010.

German Marshall Fund Fellow at the Bellagio Dialogue on Migration, Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center on Lake Como, Italy, June 24-July 8, 2006.

Fulbright Scholar Program German Studies Seminar, “Muslim Minorities: Opportunities and Challenges in West European Societies. German and French Experiences.” Berlin and Strasbourg, May 13-27, 2006.

Fellowship to attend the first International, Interdisciplinary Conference of Black European Studies (BEST), University of Mainz, presented work on the politics of race in Europe.  November 10-13, 2005.