Graduate Specializations, Concentrations, Topic Areas, and Regional Study Centers

Thematic International Institutes

• Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID)
  CASID is a multidisciplinary unit in the College of Social Science which promotes and coordinates the study of issues related to international development from the perspective of the social sciences and liberal arts. CASID publishes an e-mail newsletter called the "CASID Current" which outlines international development-related events at MSU.
• Women & International Development (WID)
  Michigan State University's Women & International Development Program (WID) promotes teaching, research, and action on international development and global transformation as they affect women and gender relations. While WID's primary focus is the Southern Hemisphere, the program recognizes that the "South" is a set of relationships rather than a place
• Institute of International Agriculture (IIA)
  The Institute of International Agriculture (IIA) in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) at Michigan State University (MSU) serves to help promote, facilitate, expedite, and coordinate international development programs of the College. More specifically, it assists all academic and nonacademic units to continue building an international dimension into ongoing programs of teaching, research, and extension.
• Office of International Studies in Education (ISE)
• Institute of International Health (IIH)
  The Institute of International Health was established at Michigan State University in January 1987 to marshal university resources to address problems of world health and to serve as a center for information on world health issues. The IIH is a focal point at MSU for facilitating faculty and student research and academic interests in international health and for international health projects overseas. The IIH works with the health-related colleges, as well as with social and agricultural scientists, nutritionists, and a variety of interdisciplinary units, to foster and coordinate research, education, and development at the international level.

Area & Regional Studies Centers

• African Studies Center (ASC)
  Founded in 1960, the MSU African Studies Center (ASC) is one of nine Title VI National Resource Centers on Africa designated by the U.S. Department of Education. The Center’s strength is based upon the 160 MSU faculty who provide broad research, teaching, and service on the continent.
• Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS)
  The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), founded in 1963, seeks to ensure a quality undergraduate experience; support for research; resources for teachers at all levels; business; government; media; and the general community.
• Center for European & Russian/Eurasian Studies (CERS)
• Asian Studies Center (ASN)
• Canadian Studies Center (CSC)
  The centre's mission, to provide teaching, research and outreach to those interested in the many relationships between Canada and the United States, is derived from the university's land-grant ethic. Areas of study include anthropology, American studies, business, economics, English, fisheries and wildlife, food science, geography, history, labor and industrial relations, resource development, and social sciences as well as teacher education.

Graduate Concentrations & Specializations

• Environmental Science & Public Policy (ESPP)
  The ESPP Specialization provides students with an understanding of the diverse disciplines brought to bear on contemporary environmental problems. Each course in the four course series is designed to provide an understanding of how various disciplines conceptualize environmental issues and how scientific information can be brought to bear on environmental decision-making and environmental policy.
• Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change (GJEC)
  GJEC is a graduate specialization available as an elective for students who are enrolled in master's and doctoral degree programs at Michigan State University. The specialization is the first of its kind in the nation explicitly focusing on the intersection of gender, environmental change, and social and environmental justice. The program is designed in particular to examine these issues and processes from both local and global perspectives, challenging traditional dichotomies between the First and Third World, the North and the South.
• Environmental and Resource Economics
  The interdepartmental graduate specialization in environmental and resource economics develops students’ expertise in the application of economics to problems of environmental and natural resource use and policy.
• International Development
  The Graduate and Undergraduate Specializations in International Development are designed for students who wish to increase their understanding of the process of continuity and change in various regions of the world, particularly Africa, Asia, Eurasia and Latin America. Multidisciplinary in theory and practice, the specializations are based on methodologies, theories, and literatures of the social sciences and liberal arts, involving faculty from the social sciences, arts, languages and applied professional fields.