Visiting Scholars
As part of its global mission to improve the quality of public policymaking through research, teaching, and policy engagement, the Sanford School of Public Policy and DCID host both short- and long-term visiting scholars on a highly selective basis. Preference is given to requests from universities and other research and public policy-oriented organizations with which the School has collaborative institutional relationships.
Most visiting scholars have a PhD and come to DCID to perform independent research related to their field under the guidance of a faculty advisor. Applicants should indicate their research interests and identify faculty in DCID with whom they would like to work during their time at Duke. Applicants should also include a recent curriculum vitae and their research proposal, and confirm that their funding will be sufficient to cover monthly subsistence costs, health insurance, and the School’s administrative fee (based on the length of the scholar’s visit).
Visiting scholars may visit DCID for up to one year, during which time they can audit classes offered by MIDP and have full access to the Duke University Libraries and computing resources in the Sanford and Rubenstein Hall Buildings. The administrative fee for visiting scholars is $6,000 per semester; the minimum monthly living expenses required by Duke University for visa issuance purposes for an individual is $2,361.45 per month.
Considerations
- The candidate must have a research proposal of interest to one of the DCID faculty, and this faculty must be available to advise the scholar
- The candidate must have a strong command of the English language
- The candidate must be highly recommended by professional colleagues
- The candidate must have appropriate institutional sponsorship/financial support from his/her sponsoring organization
- Preferably, an institutional relationship exists between the candidate’s employer/university and the Sanford School of Public Policy/DCID
How to Apply
Interested candidates should contact Dayne Hamrick, Director of MIDP Admissions at danny.hamrick@duke.edu
Domestic visiting scholar applicants and applicants to the Magdalena Yesil Visiting Professorship (Armenia) program, please contact Shana Lassiter (shana.lassiter@duke.edu), Assistant Dean for Academic Programs at the Sanford School.
In your inquiry, please include:
- Letter/email indicating the reasons for your interest in DCID and general agreement with the principles outlined above
- Research proposal
- CV or resume, including your picture
- Letter of support regarding your scholarship/policy work from two professional supervisors or colleagues
- A copy of your top two publications
- Proposed dates of visit
- Funding source meeting above requirements
- Optional: Your TOEFL or IELTS score if coming from a non-English speaking country
Current Visiting Scholars
Junghun Kim is a 2022-2023 Visiting Scholar at the Duke Center for International Development. He is a civil servant and director of safety improvement for the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) in South Korea. The MOIS works to support the local economy by supporting the finance and taxation of local government and Junghun has been working for the MOIS for over 20 years, in positions ranging from the local subsidy division to planning and finance.
Junghun has a Master’s in Public Policy from Kings College London in the United Kingdom as well as an MBA from Yonsei University in South Korea. He completed course requirements for the Economics Ph.D. program at Seoul National University and received a BA in History from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (South Korea). He was directly involved with the creation of the Comprehensive Local transfer Act in 2014, shifting numerous responsibilities from central to local government. Having worked in a local government finance division of the Ministry of Public Administration in Korea, his research interests primarily focus on Public Financial Management and Fiscal Decentralization issues. He was selected to receive the Korean Government Overseas Fellowship for the development of Senior Executives in 2022.
Wollela Abehodie Yesegat is a Fall 2022 Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Duke Center for International Development. She is an Assistant Professor at the College of Business and Economics of the Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
Wollela holds a PhD in taxation from the University of New South Wales, Australia, an MA in Business and Commerce from Keio University, Japan, and a BA in Accounting from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. She has taught various courses including advanced taxation, business research methods, and public finance and taxation at Addis Ababa University. Wollela has also undertaken several research projects on the Ethiopian fiscal system, publishing her works in internationally reputable taxation journals. Currently, Wollela is involved in research projects on, primarily, property taxation in Ethiopia as well as tax policy development, structure, and institutional arrangements in select Sub-Saharan African Countries.
From 2013 to 2017, Wollela was a member of the Resource Allocation Group of the ICTD and reviewed several taxation-focused proposals for resource allocation. She has been a member of the management committee of the Ethiopian Tax Research Network since 2017. She was a member of Addis Ababa University’s Editorial Board of Ethiopian Journal of Business and Economics for seven years and was a visiting scholar at the African Tax Institute, Pretoria University, South Africa.
