Her research focuses on the transitions from war to peace after the Second World War, specifically in Germany and Japan, and includes themes such as occupation, totalitarianism and democracy, and culture and identity. Her interests further extend to transnational and global historical developments during the Cold War. She speaks English, French, German, and Japanese.

"From Demilitarization to Democratization: Demobilized Soldiers Between the American Occupation and the German and Japanese States, 1945-1955." Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift 70, no. 2 (2011), 329-362.

"Not Soldiers Anymore, Not Civilians Yet: Demobilized Soldiers Between American Occupation and the Japanese Government, 1945-1955." The Japan Studies Association Journal, vol. 8, (2010), 165-178.

Returning to Democracy: Demobilized Soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army and their Civil Reintegration in Postwar Japanese Society. Proceedings of the Second International Conference of the Japanese Studies Association in Southeast Asia, 2009.

• HIST2013 Twentieth Century Europe, Part One
  
• HIST2014 Twentieth Century Europe, Part Two, 1945-1990
  
• HIST2063 Europe and Modernity: Cultures and Identities, 1890-1940
  
• HIST2106 Imperial Japan: Its Modern Wars and Colonial Empire
  
• HIST2129 Living through War: Society, Culture and Trauma
  
• HIST2135 Cold War Germany through Documents (1945- 1990)
  
• HIST3029 Transnational History: A New Perspective on the Past*
  
• CCGL9055 Genocide: Mass Violence and the Quest for Justice
• CCHU9073 Whose Memory is it Anyway? Remembering and Forgetting in a Present-Centered World
  
• JAPN2089 Twentieth-century Japan: History, State, and Society

*In relation to the course HIST3029, Birgit edits an ongoing forum "Book Reviews and the Teaching of World History" of The Middle Ground Journal: World History and Global Studies (co-editing with Hong-Ming Liang)