Studying politics and philosophy in Lille, France

When Isabelle Radakovich arrived in France this fall, the setting felt uncannily familiar.

During her first weeks studying abroad, the similarities to James Madison College kept adding up. The curriculum blended philosophy with politics and public affairs. Faculty and students were focused on political science but maintained an interdisciplinary approach. She discovered an amphitheater named after Hannah Arendt.

“I thought, okay, did somebody create this school with me in mind?” recalled Radakovich, a fourth-year JMC student.

Radakovich is spending the first half of her senior year at Sciences Po Lille — formally L’Institut d’Études Politiques de Lille — through a semester exchange program. The school’s name translates roughly to “political science school,” and like JMC, it combines interdisciplinary coursework with a focus on public affairs.

Lille’s position in northern France puts Radakovich within easy reach of Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Sciences Po maintains partnerships with 11 universities across the world, creating a campus where students from different countries and disciplines mix constantly.

“You’re meeting students from all over the world, students from all different kinds of disciplines,” Radakovich said. “It just made too much sense.”

Radakovich arrived in France with a packed academic portfolio: majors in international relations, political theory and constitutional democracy and French. She’s working on a senior honors thesis examining private military company effectiveness in civil conflicts. Outside of the classroom, Radakovich spent two years competing on MSU’s women’s rowing team and is a member of JMC Student Senate. She’s been nominated for Rhodes, Marshall and Truman scholarships and hopes to attend a graduate program focused on international law next year.

But the thread connecting these pursuits is less about accumulation than investigation. Radakovich keeps returning to questions about accountability: who answers for violence, how systems of justice work or fail, what happens in the gaps where traditional state authority breaks down.

An Interdisciplinary Path

The path to Lille began a few years earlier, when Radakovich arrived at Michigan State in late July 2021. She came to campus for her first study abroad experience before most first-year students had moved into their residence halls.

Through a two-week program in Costa Rica focused on educational systems, Radakovich got her first taste of international education and found her footing at MSU. “I didn’t realize that international experiences would be such a formative part of my experience at Michigan State,” she said. “I guess I should have known with that first two-week program that it hooked me.”

The following summer, she spent several weeks in Tours, France, on a language-intensive program that eventually pushed her from a French minor to a major. By then, Radakovich had also added PTCD as a second major after international relations, drawn by faculty who encouraged her to think through complex questions of accountability and justice.

At Sciences Po, Radakovich is taking courses on European Union politics and European history with students who grew up within the systems they’re studying.

“It would be like taking a kid from France and dropping them in an AP Gov course,” she explained.

After a history class one afternoon, Radakovich was in a coffee shop with students from Spain, listening as they debated Catalonian independence and walked through constitutional implications she’d never considered. Another conversation revealed how a German classmate understood Russia’s war in Ukraine through an entirely different strategic lens than she’d encountered in U.S. discourse.

“It’s fascinating,” Radakovich said. “I’m so grateful for all the conversations that I’ve been able not just to have but to listen in on. You’re always trying to expose yourself to as many experiences and as many different perspectives as possible.”

She spent fall break traveling to Germany to visit towns associated with philosophers she’s studied and winter break will bring Christmas markets and a trip to Switzerland.

Looking Ahead

In January, Radakovich will return to East Lansing for her final semester, where she’ll complete her senior honors thesis, finish her last Honors College requirement and continue serving on JMC Student Senate.

As Radakovich studies in Lille, she’s also working through applications for graduate programs in international relations and political studies — primarily in the United Kingdom, where her research interests align closely with academic programs focused on international law and private military security.

For students considering study abroad, Radakovich’s advice centers on embracing the temporary nature of the experience rather than shying away from it.

“Take advantage of that urgency,” she said. “You meet somebody outside of class? Ask them to go on a weekend trip with you. Really try to make those connections because your notes from class are really important, but it’s also about the photos that you have and the people that you’ll text. Use that opportunity for what it is.”

This story originally appeared on the James Madison College website.