The Study of the US Institute (SUSI) on Journalism and Media has called Athens, Ohio its home base for the last five years. Offered in the summer, this program brings 18 scholars from 18 different countries to the United States to experience journalism, media and culture. From visiting media outlets in Atlanta, Georgia the District of Columbia and San Francisco, to seeing a unique sector of American culture by visiting the Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, last summer’s SUSI scholars had a full schedule of travel and experiences – not to mention lectures and workshops designed to share journalistic practices and perspectives cross-culturally.
An annual federal grant from the US Department of State’s Bureau
of Education and Cultural Affairs totaling more than $280,000 makes it all possible.
For the SUSI Journalism and Media program, this cost covers all travel, study
tours, lodging, meals and incidentals and entertainment for the scholars, and
allows a “book allowance” of several hundred dollars so that scholars can take
educational material back to their countries.
Not every school is handed this grant, however. The
Institute for International Journalism (IIJ) at Ohio University applied for the
opportunity to host scholars and organize the program. Once received, if
everything ran smoothly the first year, the IIJ has renewed the grant for two three-year
cycles, Associate Professor, Mary Rogus said. After the first three years, OU
reapplied and received the grant again, which was automatically allotted to the
school for three years.
There are a total of nine different SUSI programs, which
according to the State Department’s website, “promote a better understanding of
the people, institutions, and culture of the United States among foreign
students, teachers, and scholars.”
Rogus has been the Academic Director for the SUSI Journalism
and Media program since Ohio University originally received the prestigious ECA
grant five years ago. Her job entails putting together programming for the
scholars, including everything that happens on OU’s campus, setting up trips to
Cleveland and Amish country, and traveling with the scholars while they are
stateside.
“The goal is to kind of build a global community of
scholars,” she said. “That’s really what it’s all about, to expose them to
America but also to share on a global scale knowledge and understanding. These
people (are) educators, people who are going to be influencing the next
generations in their countries.”
And build a global community it does.
“There are two very beneficial aspects
to the SUSI experience,” Radu Meza, a 2014 SUSI scholar from Romania, said in
an email. “The first would be the opportunity to visit US media institutions
(both big and small) and the other is the wonderful experience of meeting with
journalism educators from all over the world, establishing connections that may
lead to future collaborations.”
After the SUSI program, Meza spent some time teaching in a
graduate summer school in France through a partnership with his university,
Paris 8 University, Westminster University and Pompeu Fabra University.
“Both in the lectures that I taught in the international
graduate summer school in France and also in some of my courses which I’m
teaching this semester, I’ve incorporated some of the content from the SUSI
program,” he said. “More specifically, other than my direct experience with US
media institutions, I’ve added some more information about the US media system
(as delivered by prof. Mary Rogus) and also about media economics (as delivered
by prof. Hugh Martin).”
Other SUSI scholars have also been utilizing their
experiences in the program back home.
Aruna Lokuliyana, a 2014 scholar from Sri Lanka, has used some
of the cultural experiences to describe and compare cultural similarities in
the United States with those in Sri Lanka.
“(The) SUSI program has created a great environment to share
and develop our mutual experiences related to our own country media and
academic experiences with each other, and it was a very rare opportunity to
me,” he said.
Though the semester started almost immediately after Lorna
Chacón-Martínez’s return to Costa Rica, where she is currently teaching two
courses and doing research for a new documentary.
She also coordinated with the US Embassy to arrange for her
students to participate in two press conferences for the embassy.
“I was honored to be selected,” Seyf Mohamed, a scholar from
Tunisia, said. “Now I have friends from around the globe with whom I am
currently getting in touch on a regular basis working on various projects.
Also, having new friends and meeting distinguished people was highly important
to me as a scholar and a media practitioner.”
Since last summer’s program, Med has been working on a new
curriculum to be taught next semester and a research article.
Lionel Brossi, a professor at the University of Chile, has
been using his experiences and connections from the 2014 SUSI program a lot
since returning to his country.
“I have modified the syllabus of my course of Intercultural
Communication,” he wrote in an email. “Thanks to my research collaborator Dr.
Yea Wen Chen, I could access to new bibliography and the syllabus of her
course, from which I took some great ideas to implement.”
Among the handful of SUSI scholars from last summer who
responded to email requests for information, a common idea was that, outside of
lectures, the cultural tours were some of the best experiences for the
scholars.
Surprisingly, though some of the bigger stops on the trip
were also mentioned, the most talked about visit wasn’t to the District of
Columbia or San Francisco, but to Holmes County, OH.
“What I find most interesting is to watch the scholars in
Amish country,” Rogus said. “It’s so different from any of their impressions
about America and Americans. It’s just this wonderful, pleasant surprise. I
don’t know if it’s just that it’s totally not what they expect to find in
America, but it’s just something that they really like and appreciate.”
Though media and cultural exposure and experiences were very
important to the scholars, personal interactions and networking were equally,
if not more, important for last year’s scholars.
“The most beneficial part of the program was meeting the
faculties from OU and I hope the academic communication will continue in the
future,” Shashwati Goswami, a scholar from India, said. “And the next best was
to meet the other scholars from various parts of the world which enriched my
knowledge of their socio-economic situation as well as the situation of media
in their countries. The experience would not have been possible without SUSI.”
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