Bard College To Host Six-Week Academic Exchange Program on Foreign Policy with U.S. State Department This Summer

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Bard College is hosting a multinational group of 18 university-level scholars and educators on a six-week academic exchange program from June 21 to August 3. Entitled “Grand Strategy in Context: Institutions, People, and the Making of U.S. Foreign Policy,” this Study of the U.S. Institute (SUSI) is designed to foster a better understanding in academic institutions overseas of how U.S. foreign policy is formulated, implemented, and taught. Sponsored by Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the program features an academic residency at Bard’s campus in Annandale-on-Hudson and a week in Manhattan with the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program. The Institute also features integrated educational study tours to Hyde Park, West Point, Albany, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and eight days in Washington, D.C., as well as extracurricular cultural and community activities that help to broaden the participants’ understanding of U.S. society. SUSI is conducted in collaboration with a diverse set of partners, including the Roosevelt Institute, the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

Nominated by U.S. embassies, the 18 participants selected represent the following countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malawi, Montenegro, New Zealand, Pakistan, Romania, and Russia.

The goal of the program is to provide participants with grounding in U.S. foreign policy in all its complexity, to help them develop effective syllabi and curricula, and to provide teaching tools to aid them in the classroom. This is achieved through a rigorous curriculum that focuses on the study of the historical foundations of U.S. foreign policy, a careful review of foreign policy actors and institutions, exploration of regional political issues, and lively interaction among all participants. Participants will also be encouraged to pursue their own research agendas and to utilize new media tools such as blogging about U.S. foreign policy. Together, these activities will help shape their roles as opinion leaders and informed educators in the international environment.

Bard faculty and staff who have contributed to the proposal and will participate in the Institute include: Walter Mead, Jonathan Cristol, Richard Aldous, Christopher McIntosh, Mark Lytle, Peg Peoples, Celia Bland, Ruth Zisman, Tom Keenan, Roger Berkowitz, Erin Cannan, Helene Tieger, Simon Gilhooley, Dimitri Papadimitriou, Taun Toay, Jen Murray, Philip Pardi, David Register, and Jonathan Becker, as well as CCE Senior Fellow David Woolner. Jim Ketterer is the academic director and Jess Scott is the director of administration. The participants will also meet with practitioners and policymakers in government, NGOs, as well as scholars from other colleges and universities.

SUSI is designed and funded by the Study of the U.S. Branch in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). SUSI participants are among more than 40,000 individuals participating in U.S. Department of State exchange programs each year. For more than 60 years, ECA has funded and supported programs that seek to promote mutual understanding and respect between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Other ECA programs include the Fulbright Program and the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program. For more information, contact Josué Barrera at [email protected] or visit exchanges.state.gov/susi.

One of Bard College’s basic principles is a fundamental belief in the link between liberal education and democracy. Bard is firmly committed to promoting and sustaining projects that engage its students, faculty, and administrators with the most important issues facing society. Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement supports, coordinates, and promotes the wide array of initiatives that define Bard as a private institution in the public interest. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit bard.edu/civicengagement.
 
ABOUT BARD COLLEGE
Founded in 1860, Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, is an independent, nonsectarian, residential, coeducational college offering a four-year B.A. program in the liberal arts and sciences and a five-year B.A./B.S. degree in economics and finance. The Bard College Conservatory of Music offers a five-year program in which students pursue a dual degree—a B.Music and a B.A. in a field other than music—and offers an M.Music in vocal arts and in conducting. Bard also bestows an M.Music degree at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bard and its affiliated institutions also grant the following degrees: A.A. at Bard High School Early College, a public school with campuses in New York City, Cleveland, and Newark, New Jersey; A.A. and B.A. at Bard College at Simon’s Rock: The Early College, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and through the Bard Prison Initiative at six correctional institutions in New York State; M.A. in curatorial studies, M.S. in economic theory and policy, and M.S. in environmental policy and in climate science and policy at the Annandale campus; M.F.A. and M.A.T. at multiple campuses; M.B.A. in sustainability in New York City; and M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in the decorative arts, design history, and material culture at the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan. Internationally, Bard confers dual B.A. degrees at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, Russia (Smolny College); American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan; and Bard College Berlin: A Liberal Arts University; as well as dual B.A. and M.A.T. degrees at Al-Quds University in the West Bank.

Bard offers nearly 50 academic programs in four divisions. Total enrollment for Bard College and its affiliates is approximately 5,000 students. The undergraduate College has an enrollment of more than 1,900 and a student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1. For more information about Bard College, visit www.bard.edu.
 (07/04/14)

This event was last updated on 07-04-2014

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