See how Croft students build an International Studies path through coursework, research, and opportunities beyond the classroom.
Croft is for high-achieving, highly motivated students who want to study the world with depth. The International Studies major brings together language study, regional knowledge, thematic coursework, study abroad, and original research so students can follow serious questions across cultures, disciplines, and places.
Students do more than take courses about international issues. They build the language skills, academic focus, and cross-cultural understanding to examine those issues closely and communicate what they learn with confidence.
Want the full roadmap? How Croft Works offers a step-by-step look at the Croft experience.
Language study is central to the Croft experience. Students begin a modern language early and continue throughout the program, using that language to deepen their coursework, prepare for study abroad, and understand the region they choose to study.
By graduation, Croft students have spent years developing their language skills in classrooms, abroad, and through the academic work that shapes their major.
Croft classes are small, focused, and built for students who want to take ideas seriously. Students read closely, ask questions, test their thinking in conversation, and learn from classmates who bring different languages, regions, and interests into the room.
That kind of discussion helps students sharpen how they think, write, and explain complex international issues.
Here are some of the classes you may take while at Croft.
UG
3 credits
This course introduces students to concepts and theories that help us understand global problems, actors, processes, and institutions from a multidisciplinary perspective. It strengthens core skills for the international studies major (research, analysis, and writing) and aims at empowering students to become informed, inquisitive, innovative, and successful global citizens.
UG
3 credits
Demands for health sector reform are intimately linked to revolutionary movements in Latin America. Cuba is the most well-known example, but medical reforms were fundamental demands during different revolutionary moments in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Chile, Chiapas, Venezuela, and elsewhere. This course asks why this is the case and looks at how healthcare reforms can legitimize or de-legitimize political movements over time.
UG
3 credits
Combining insights from the fields of economics, politics, and public policy, this course aims to give a broad training in political economy of contemporary trade policy.
UG
3 credits
Introduction to fundamental notions of public international law and international trade law.
UG
3 credits
The course aims to provide a theoretical and substantive understanding of the field of global health from a social science perspective. Topics may include communicable and noncommunicable diseases, elective biomedicine, health care delivery systems, social determinants of health, reproduction, and ethics.
UG
3 credits
An interdisciplinary overview of Russian politics and culture from the end of the Soviet Union to the present.
Croft’s thematic tracks help students study the questions that interest them most. Students choose a focus connected to areas such as culture, economics, politics, or public health, giving their International Studies major a clearer academic direction.
View Thematic Tracks
Croft students choose a regional concentration and build deeper knowledge of East Asia, Europe, Latin America, or the Middle East and North Africa. That regional focus connects language study, coursework, study abroad, and research.
Find Regional Concentrations
Croft students carry their academic interests into senior thesis research, internships, fellowships, and other opportunities that help them keep developing their direction. These experiences help students connect what they study with the questions, communities, and fields they want to understand more fully.
Learn About the Senior Thesis See Opportunities in ActionStudents must be admitted to the Croft Institute to complete the Bachelor of Arts in International Studies at the University of Mississippi. Students in other majors may pursue the International Studies minor without being admitted to Croft.
Croft graduates use their International Studies background in public service, law, medicine, business, education, nonprofit work, graduate study, and international careers. The major helps students build language skills, research experience, cross-cultural understanding, and the ability to work with complex information.
Croft gives motivated students a serious way to study language, region, culture, politics, economics, health, research, and international experience as part of one connected undergraduate path. If you are ready for that kind of challenge, the next step is to learn how admission works.
