Highlights: 2024 Summer Institute

Celebrating its 20th anniversary next year, the CPD Summer Institute enables practitioners in public diplomacy and global communication to expand their toolkits, learn the latest scholarship, and network with colleagues from around the world. Held on the USC Campus, the Summer Institute is designed to improve every aspect of public diplomacy strategy and implementation.  

Podcast

In this special podcast hosted by CPD Visiting Scholar Eytan Gilboa, three participants in CPD's 2024 Summer Institute discuss the interplay of public diplomacy and defense, as well as reflect on the two-week experience. 

Disclaimer: All views expressed by participants are their own and do not reflect the views of their employers. 

Photos

Visit our Flickr Gallery to view photos from this year's Summer Institute. 

Testimonials

“The USC Summer Institute in Public Diplomacy (PD) was an incredible experience. I found the interdisciplinary approach to be perfectly tailored to the concerns of PD practitioners. From data analysis, to history, to modern technology and its applications, we were taken on a holistic exploration of the multiple facets of PD that will help us all be better PD officers in the field.”

— Jack Bisase  (Office of Press and Public Diplomacy, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State)

“The USC Summer Institute in Public Diplomacy provides a fresh academic framework to analyze how public diplomacy contributes to international security. Educational, cultural, music and sports exchanges enable citizens from around the world to find mutual areas of cooperation, and the Institute understands that successful implementation of these programs requires a multi-sector approach. The Institute is unique in that it brings together classmates from the US foreign service, ministries from around the world, private sector, and nonprofits to share real-world PD experience with one another.

— Jeanne Platt Hoerter (Public Diplomacy Advocate and Volunteer with AFS-USA)

"The Summer Institute in Public Diplomacy (PD) is truly a unique experience to begin USC's Professional Master’s in Public Diplomacy program (MPD). Bringing together PD leaders from foreign ministries, armed services and cultural institutions stationed in every corner of the world, the Institute tackles emerging challenges, implements campaigns for real-life projects, and introduces the wide range of nascent technologies, partners and channels to effectively connect with foreign audiences. The course also includes applications for AI and new disinformation techniques to combat. Learning from tremendous faculty and my masterful colleagues in the Institute, all of them showing a memorably joyful spirit and dogged commitment to the diplomatic mission, was an extremely powerful introduction to the MPD.”

— Tim Bourgaize Murray (MPD Student, Financial Communications & Public Affairs Executive)

About the CPD Summer Institute

Established in 2006, the program provides an opportunity for practitioners to spend time engaging with peers and professors in a setting that presents a forward-looking public diplomacy curriculum that is both solution-driven and measurable. In addition, the program provides hands-on learning with the latest tools, technologies and platforms for immersive storytelling.

More information on the CPD Summer Institute is available here.

Want to know what past Summer Institute alumni are up to now? Find out here.