A Conversation with Suzie Choi
Friday, September 26, 2025 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM EDT
Fuse at Mason Square, #6302
About Suzie Choi:
I stepped into the field of international development with the belief that large, Western institutions, like the UN, offered the clearest path to impact, shaped by my own country, South Korea’s own trajectory as a so-called “developed” nation. Over time, I came to see that good intentions alone are insufficient: beneath them lie power dynamics and definitions of progress that are neither neutral nor universally right. My undergraduate work at Duke, including my honors thesis on anti–Belt and Road Indigenous movements in Ecuador, sharpened this critique and instilled in me a commitment to interrogating who defines, leads, and evaluates development.
Professionally, my experiences with organizations such as Saath, Co.Act, Counterpart International, and, currently, Namati have shown me the transformative potential of communities when they are connected, empowered, and mobilized. I aim to advance scholarship and practice that reconceptualize movements not as linear campaigns measured by discrete outcomes, but as dynamic, “circulatory processes” whose impact lies in resilience, collaboration, and narrative change. My long-term goal is to bridge rigorous research with practical strategies that strengthen locally led movements and reframe how success in international development is defined and sustained.
