Dr. Ruth Hill Useem (1915-2003)

Dr. Ruth Hill Useem was born on May 31, 1915 in Hamilton, Ohio. She received her BA in Sociology, Geology and English from Miami University in 1936 and her Ph.D. in Sociology, Anthropology, Social Psychology, and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1947. She married Dr. John Useem in June of 1940; they have three grown TCK sons and seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Dr. Useem first lived outside the U.S. in 1952-53 while conducting research with John Useem in India on persons who had received a higher education in a Western country (a project sponsored by The Edward W. Hazen Foundation). The Useems returned to India a second time in 1958, again sponsored by The Hazen Foundation, to study overseas Americans in India; they took their boys with them to live abroad on both visits. It was these experiences which led to John and Ruth Useem's coining of the term "Third Culture" and, by extrapolation, "Third Culture Kids." Dr. Ruth Hill Useem began publishing on Third Culture Kids in the 1960s. She is widely regarded as the founder of TCK research.

In the years 1952-1985, while supported by the Institute of International Studies in Education and the Center for International Studies and Programs of Michigan State University, Dr. Useem made field observations on expatriate communities, overseas schools, and third culture children in: EAST ASIA (South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong); SOUTHEAST ASIA (Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia); SOUTH ASIA (India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan); MIDDLE EAST (Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon); AFRICA (Egypt, Morocco, Canary Islands, South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Senegal, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Togo); EUROPE (Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Austria); UNITED STATES (Washington, D.C., New York, East Lansing, Michigan). In all, Dr. Useem traveled to 76 countries to complete her field research on Third Culture Kids.

With respect to the education of Third Culture Children, Dr. Useem has acted as a consultant, keynote speaker, and workshop presenter at schools and regional organizations assisted by the Office of Overseas Schools of the U.S. Department of State. She has acted as a consultant to, and given special presentations to, personnel and students of U.S. Department of Defense Dependents' Schools as well as the boards and administrators of Protestant- and Catholic-related overseas schools, and schools provided by multinational corporations for the children of their employees. Dr. Useem worked directly with students, parents and teachers at these schools.

Between the years 1952 and 1985, Dr. Useem also taught at the university level in the U.S. The central emphasis in her teaching has been combining sociological, cultural anthropological and social psychological perspectives for understanding individuals in their social/cultural/economic settings, particularly when those settings are undergoing rapid change and conflict. She taught courses on the education of TCKs both in the U.S. and abroad. During her tenure as an educator, Dr. Useem directed or made substantive contributions to more than thirty doctoral dissertations. Many of these consisted of ground-breaking work in the field of TCK research.

Dr. Useem's most recent research is the exploratory study of nearly 700 American Adult TCKs (ATCK), ages 25-90, living in the U.S. This research, done with Ann Baker Cottrell and the help of John Useem and Kathleen Finn Jordan is the largest study of ATCKs who were abroad with all the predominant sponsors (Government, Military, Mission, Business and other--e.g., education, media, international organizations) in most of the countries on the planet.

Over the past half century Dr. Useem collected what is probably the most extensive collection of materials by and about TCKs, including some of the earliest research on TCKs done by her graduate students. Much of this material, especially that concerning Missions and Missionary kids has been donated to the Yale Theological Library.  

(Parts of the above bibliography written by Ruth Hill Useem for TCKworld)