toft graduated from the u.s. army's defense language institute in 1984 with highest honours. she then completed the associate of arts general curriculum of the university of maryland's european division in 1987. in 1990 toft graduated "summa cum laude" with a b.a. in political science and slavic languages and literature from the university of california santa barbara. she went on to chicago university where she completed both an m.a. (1992) and a ph.d. (1998) in political science. the title of her doctoral dissertation was "the geography of ethnic conflict".