Professor Rick Travis focuses on international relations and comparative politics, specializing in American foreign policy. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia and has been at MSU since 1993. Travis’s research interests include: examining the U.S. foreign assistance program, military spending in developing countries, and issues related to post-conflict governance and democratization. He is also involved in projects examining the determinants of policy differences among the 50 American states in areas including the environment, reproduction rights and welfare policy. Dr. Travis’s work has been published in outlets such as International Studies Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Political Psychology, International Interactions, Journal of Developing Areas, and Social Science Quarterly.

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 three occasions. In 2010 he was honored by the Carnegie Foundation as Mississippi’s Professor of the Year.

Dr. Travis currently serves as the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.