〈 Berger | Dillon 〉

you don't need string theory to talk about supersymmetry

Correct

supersymmetry is a symmetry that exchanges bosons <--> fermions .. you don't need string theory for this you just need the lagrangian to be invariant under this exchange. The simplest model is the Wess-Zumino model

of course you first need to define what a supersymemtric transformation even looks like. it's actually a continuous symmetry generated by the SUSY graded lie-algebras and not just a discrete symmetry

that's if you gauge SUSY