Written by Andrew Fleckenstein, Rockefeller College student and ICCR Intern
Andrew: I sat down with Dr. Appe, a distinguished scholar with extensive international research experience, to discuss her journey with the Fulbright Program and the profound impact it has had on her academic and professional trajectory. Below, she reflects on her experiences with Fulbright and how they have shaped her work and academic pursuits.
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Fulbright Awards & Motivation
Before embarking on my academic career and prior to my graduate studies, I participated as a Student Fulbrighter in Colombia for a year, an experience I highly encourage my students to consider following their undergraduate or graduate education.
As a faculty member, I have been honored to receive two U.S. Scholar Awards through the Fulbright Program. The first award was granted for fieldwork in 2015 and 2016, enabling me to spend two summers in Ecuador. More recently, I was awarded a Global Scholar Award for the period of 2021 to 2023, which supports research conducted across multiple regions, specifically including Mexico, India, and Colombia. I have also engaged in the Fulbright Specialist Program, which, while part of the broader Fulbright framework, focuses on short-term consultancies with international partners. I had the privilege of completing consultancies in Colombia and Egypt.
In my view, the Fulbright Program represents one of the most critical funding mechanisms for facilitating international exchange and research. My motivation for involvement is rooted in my experience as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, which inspired me to pursue further international engagement in a more professional and research-oriented capacity.
Fulbright Research & Experience
All of my Fulbrights have related to my two core professional interests and now threads of research, one being the intersection of government and nonprofit organizations/nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), this was particularly the case for my research in Latin America. I have been interested in the funding, political, and regulatory environments for NGOs in countries like Colombia and Ecuador. This work influenced and draws on my dissertation research.
More recently, my research has looked at foreign aid and the role of private philanthropy in funding organizations that do international work or organizations that are based internationally. This research on private philanthropy is at the core of my most recent Fulbright in Mexico, India, and Colombia. I situate my research questions in the context of migration and how that has provided the opportunity for diaspora communities, in the case of my research in the US, to send what we can call collective remittances. Whereas family remittances are sent directly to family and friends by diaspora members, collective remittances are pooled together and sent back to countries of origin for the public good, most often for development projects through nonprofit organizations. Collective remittances are a form of what we call diaspora philanthropy. Traditional studies of philanthropy tend not to capture the full picture of giving practices, particularly those outside of Anglosphere and European cultural contexts. My research about diaspora philanthropy, which recognizes the intersection of migration, development, and philanthropy, contributes to explaining how groups that are often neglected in the literature—immigrants, migrants, and refugees—make sense of their identities physically distant from their homelands through philanthropic giving.
My research shows that collective remittances are a key way in which diaspora communities maintain meaningful links to their countries of origin. Questions about why people give and engage in prosocial behavior internationally are important for theory building about what motivates giving and have practical implications for nonprofit leaders. Nonprofit leaders seek to generate and increase individual giving to achieve their objectives. My research findings provide further evidence that personal networks and word of mouth are important to donor choice and incentivizing giving to international causes.
Research in Ecuador
This thread of my research asks: How and why are NGOs regulated and politically contested by the government? The research stems from my dissertation, way back when and continues, by examining: (a) how government regulation influences and shapes nonprofit organizations and (b) the political implications of specific policy tools that target organized civil society. Empirically focused in Latin America, I look at these themes in countries that include Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru. The region of Latin America presents a compelling set of cases: there is wide variation in terms of levels of economic development and democratic consolidation, but the struggle for civil society legitimacy is a common element.
Research tends to accept government assumptions that NGOs are a monolithic sector. My research demonstrates otherwise. I identify several coping and adaptive strategies and their variation by NGOs – such as compliance, collective action, and legal action – to government regulation.
Key Takeaways
The best part of these experiences is that I’ve gotten to know several scholars from the countries where I study. These scholars, now colleagues and friends, are doing amazing, rigorous research, which has been both rewarding and important for me. It has allowed me to see different perspectives and approaches to research, highlighting some of my own so-called Western biases. We often talk about how so much of our research is WEIRD, based on: Western, Higher educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic population groups, and for failing to account for the differences across countries sufficiently. My colleague, Pamala Wiepking at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, has also written about this issue. Working with people who are not from the United States, in particular, has significantly broadened my understanding of my research and the social sciences as a whole.
In my opinion, comparative research is really important, that is why I was really excited when Fulbright came out with the Global Scholar opportunity, which requires one to conduct research in at least two countries across two different regions. For the grant, as noted above, I focus on Latin America and Asia, conducting research in three countries; Mexico, India, and Colombia. For the field of public affairs, comparative research can help to explain global phenomena, such as the increasing use of collective remittances for development projects in the countries of origin.
One of the things I am most proud of is the language skills (namely Spanish) that I initially learned as a Peace Corps Volunteer and then continued to learn through experiences like Fulbright. Understanding and seeing the world through a different language illuminates so much about a culture and about people and simply makes you see things differently – I wish everyone had this opportunity.
I am lucky that in my professional life, I am still able to go back to many of the places I visited early in my career. This has brought about lasting friendships and collaborations that I could never have anticipated. This is the most memorable and meaningful part of doing international work. It’s having friends all over the world who try to make sense of the world, make you think about things differently, and bring you different and important perspectives. I don’t take that for granted for a minute.
Dr. Susan Appe’s Bio
Susan Appe’s research focuses on government-nonprofit relations and the dimensions and evolution of the nonprofit sector. She examines how government policy influences and shapes civil society and nonprofit organizations/nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); how and why nonprofit organizations form networks and their implications; and the relationship between organized civil society, foreign aid and development. She is currently working on research projects related to diaspora philanthropy centered on the transnational nexus of migration, development and philanthropy. She is also studying the roles of public administration and nonprofit organizations/NGOs in mass atrocity prevention. She has extensive experience in qualitative and interpretive research methods, comparative analysis and in-depth fieldwork across North America, Latin America, Africa and Asia.
She has published articles related to government-nonprofit relations, philanthropy and foreign aid provision across public administration, public policy, nonprofit/NGOs studies and development studies journals including Public Administration Review, Administration & Society, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, Nonprofit Policy Forum, Public Administration and Development, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Development in Practice, and the Journal of International Development, among others. She presents her work at the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) and the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR), and is active in the of Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA).
Since 2020, Dr. Appe has served as co-editor-in-chief of VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, an interdisciplinary journal and leading academic outlet for research on topics related to civil society, nonprofit organizations, social enterprise, volunteering and philanthropy. For her research and teaching, Dr. Appe has been awarded five Fulbright Scholar Awards in Ecuador, Colombia, India, Mexico and Egypt.
Dr. Appe has taught courses in nonprofit management, philanthropy, public administration, and public policy. Before joining the faculty at Rockefeller, Dr. Appe was a faculty member at Binghamton University, SUNY. She is regularly invited to guest lecture and has held Visiting Professor appointments at universities in Latin America and Africa. In 2018, Dr. Appe was recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in the State University of New York system. She is also Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Macedonia 2001 and Bolivia 2002-2004) and is active in UAlbany’s Peace Corps Prep program. In the Capital Region, she serves on the Board of Directors of two local nonprofits, RISSE (Refugee & Immigrant Support Services of Emmaus, Inc.) which supports and welcomes immigrants and other newcomers in the region and the Albany Barn, a creative incubator and community arts center in Arbor Hill, Albany.
Dr. Appe has a BA from Saint Michael’s College and a MA in Arts Management from the University of Oregon. She is a Rockefeller alum, having received her MPA and PhD in Public Administration and Policy from the College.
Interviewer: Andrew Fleckenstein
I’m originally from Niagara Falls, NY, and I earned my Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from Niagara University, where my passion for global affairs was ignited. This drive led me to pursue a Master’s degree in International Affairs at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy in Albany. Alongside my studies, I currently serve as a Programming Intern for the International Center, where I further engage with global issues and initiatives. I am deeply immersed in an enriching academic environment, where I am honing my understanding of international relations and public policy.