Professor Rick Travis focuses on international relations and comparative politics, specializing in American foreign policy. He received his PhD from the University of Georgia, and has been at MSU since 1993. Professor Travis teaches specialized courses in U.S. Foreign Policy, International Conflict and Security, Western European Politics, and Comparative Political Economy, as well as Political Analysis and introductory classes in Comparative Politics and International Relations. He has extensively researched U.S. foreign policy, publishing on American economic and military aid policy and on the foreign policy beliefs of Americans. For many years, Travis directed the department's highly successful Mississippi Model Security Council simulation, where our students play the roles of diplomats representing other countries in the United Nations.
Travis has won a number of outstanding teaching awards, including the Alumni Association Lower-Level Teaching Award, the John C. Grisham Teaching Excellence Award, the Outstanding Honors Professor, and the Outstanding Political Science Professor award on two occasions. He has been honored by our students as a Professor of Eminence at their induction into the Mortar Board leadership honorary. Travis has published in such recognized journals as International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Developing Areas, Social Science Quarterly, and International Interactions. Travis' close work with our students specializing in international affairs is critical in helping them meet their career goals. His undergraduate students have traveled to Washington D.C. and Atlanta to compete in regional and national Model UN simulations, where they frequently win honors. His students have won such prestigious national scholarships as the Harry S. Truman and the George Mitchell.
For a copy of Professor Travis' vita, click here.
To go to the homepage of the Mississippi Model Security Council, click here.
Professor Travis' office is 195 Bowen, and his phone is 662-325-7866. His e-mail address is travis@ps.msstate.edu