His analysis of the writings of Anthony Powell and Roberto Bolaño has been admired by scholars.

[4] and lectures on Scottish history at the St Andrew's Society of the State of New York.

[5][6][7] He is the editor of Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/NZ Literature[8] and in 2024, was named a Corresponding Fellow by the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

[15] The scholar of English literature Christine Berberich, reviewing Birns's Understanding Anthony Powell for Modernism/modernity, described it as "a labor of love" and "a laudable task" undertaken with a "thorough knowledge of the subject matter", though she regretted the lack of discussion of the "influence of fascism on the British upper classes" in the 1930s, and of the holocaust, whereas the lesser-known Katyn massacre was covered in detail.

In his view, Birns "manages to think outside the box by applying tenets of neoliberalism to Australian literary studies and one learns much from this book, not least from its valuable discussions of the American reception of Australian fiction.