U.S. Embassy Seoul is pleased to announce the 2024 Study of the U.S. Institute for Scholars (SUSIs) Program. We encourage qualified applicants to apply for this unique opportunity to join the program in the United States.
Program Overview
Study of the U.S. Institutes for Scholars (SUSIs) are intensive post-graduate level academic programs that provide mid-career foreign university faculty and other scholars the opportunity to deepen their understanding of U.S. society, culture, values, and institutions. The program goal is to strengthen curricula and to enhance the quality of teaching about the United States in academic institutions abroad.
SUSIs for Scholars will take place at various colleges, universities, and academic institutions throughout the United States over the course of five to six weeks in summer 2024, from late May to early July. Each Institute includes a four-week academic residency and up to two weeks for an integrated study tour in another region of the United States. During the Institutes, scholars engage in rigorous academic coursework and panel discussions, interact, and establish networks with American scholars, meet with experts in respective disciplines, visit civic institutions, and in some cases, participate in research symposia and conferences.
Program Description
SUSIs for Scholars In 2024, administered by University of Montana, cohorts of 18 participants will take part in 6 scholar programs under the following disciplines:
- American Politics and Political Thought
The Institute on American Politics and Political Thought will provide a multinational group of 18 experienced and highly motivated foreign university faculty and practitioners insight into how intellectual and political movements have influenced American political institutions and American democracy. The Institute will explore the shaping of American identity and the interaction between that identity and U.S. history, politics, and the democratic process. The Institute will cover a broad range of American experiences that have influenced and been influenced by American national identity. The Institute will provide a deeper understanding of major currents in U.S. political thought, from the colonial period to the present, and explore contemporary U.S. political and social debates and public policy, relating them back to U.S. political thought and American identity.
Host Institution: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Contemporary American Literature
The Institute on Contemporary American Literature will provide a multinational group of 18 experienced and highly motivated foreign university faculty and practitioners with a deeper understanding of U.S. society and culture, past and present, through an examination of contemporary American literature. The Institute will examine how major contemporary writers, schools, and movements reflect the traditional, and evolving, U.S. literary canon. The Institute will also explore the diverse communities and voices that constitute the American literary landscape and expose participants to writers who are establishing new directions for American literature. The Institute will cover a variety of contemporary American writers and texts and suggest how the themes explored reflect larger currents within contemporary U.S. society and culture.
Host Institution: University of Montana
- Journalism and Media
The Institute on Journalism and Media will provide a multinational group of 18 experienced and highly motivated foreign journalism instructors and other related specialists with a deeper understanding of the roles that journalism and the media play in U.S. society. The Institute will examine the role of journalists in recognizing, pointing out and preventing disinformation and will explore strategies for media and information literacy to counter disinformation. Additionally, the Institute will examine best practices in journalism by discussing the rights and responsibilities of the media in a democratic society, including editorial independence, journalistic ethics, legal constraints, and international journalism. The program will also highlight the impact of technology in journalism, including the influence of the digital economy, globalization of the news media, shifting business and funding models, and other changes that are transforming the profession.
Host Institution: Arizona State University
- S. Culture, Identity, and Society
The Institute on U.S. Culture, Identity, and Society will provide a multinational group of 18 experienced and highly motivated foreign university faculty and other specialists with a deeper understanding of U.S. society, culture, values, and institutions through the lens of diversity and national unity. The Institute will examine the economic, ethnic, gender, political, racial, religious, and social contexts in which various cultures have manifested in U.S. society while focusing on the ways in which these cultures have influenced social movements and American identity throughout U.S. history. The program will draw from a diverse disciplinary base and will provide a model of how a foreign university might approach the study of American culture and society.
Host Institution: Seattle University
- S. Economics and Sustainable Development
The Institute on U.S. Economics and Sustainable Development will provide a multinational group of 18 experienced foreign university faculty, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with a deeper understanding of key components and structures of the U.S. economy. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the program will explore various topics of socioeconomics such as how financial institutions, investors, and businesses interact to support sustainable economic development, innovation, and growth; and increasing diverse and equitable employment through institutional regulation, social inclusion strategies, and private and public policies. Throughout the Institute, participants will examine the interplay of climate change, U.S. business innovation, corporate regulation, entrepreneurship, and economic theory. Participants will have opportunities to learn about key institutions and stakeholders in the U.S. economy and meet with a diverse range of business leaders and small business owners, among others.
Host Institution: Institute for Training and Development and Suffolk University
- S. Foreign Policy
The Institute on U.S. Foreign Policy will provide a multinational group of 18 experienced and highly motivated foreign university faculty and practitioners with a deeper understanding of new approaches to U.S. foreign policy and how U.S. foreign policy is formulated and implemented. The Institute will include a historical review of significant events, individuals, and philosophies that have shaped U.S. foreign policy. The program will explain the role of key influences on U.S. foreign policy including the executive and legislative branches of government, the media, the U.S. public, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and multilateral institutions. The Institute will also examine the current U.S. foreign policymaking landscape and emerging trends that are shaping policy.
Host Institution: University of Delaware
Program Funding
Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) will cover all participant costs, including travel allowances, domestic travel, health benefits, and ground transportation; book, cultural, mailing and incidental allowances; and housing and subsistence; as well as arrange and pay for participants’ international and visa travel costs and travel allowances within set limits and in coordination with posts and Fulbright commissions.
Eligibility
Candidates should ideally be in mid-career, typically between the ages of 30-50 scholars and professionals from institutions of higher education or research-focused organizations (not-for-profits, think tanks, etc.), with graduate degrees and substantial knowledge of the thematic area of the Institute or a related field.
Candidates should ideally introduce aspects of U.S. studies into its curricula, to develop new courses in the Institute subject, to enhance and update existing courses on the United States, or to offer specialized seminars/workshops for professionals in U.S. studies areas related to the program theme.
Candidates should ideally have little or no prior experience living in or visiting the United States.
Candidates should have English language fluency.
Candidates should be willing and able to fully take part in an intensive post-graduate level academic program. It is important that posts and commissions nominate individuals who are likely to be comfortable with campus life and an active program schedule.
U.S. citizens and permanent residents (green card holders) are not eligible for these programs.
Relatives of U.S. embassy or Fulbright commission employees are not eligible for SUSIs.
How to Apply
Please fill out the SUSIs application form and submit it to pdseoulexchanges@state.gov by December 08, 2023. The personal interview will be scheduled in December 2023. SUSI office in Education of Cultural Affairs, Department of State, will announce the final participant on early April 2024.
For more information, please visit Study of the U.S. Institutes | Exchange Programs (state.gov)
For inquiries, please email to the Exchange & Alumni team at pdseoulexchanges@state.gov.