We show how to construct supersymmetric actions for higher-derivative scalar field theories of the form P ( X, \phi ) , where X \equiv - ( \partial \phi ) ^ { 2 } / 2 m ^ { 4 } , within the context of d = 4 , { \cal { N } } = 1 supersymmetry .
This construction is of general use , and is applied to write supersymmetric versions of the Dirac-Born-Infeld action .
Our principal application of this formalism is to construct the supersymmetric extension of the ghost condensate .
This allows us to study the interplay between supersymmetry , time-dependent backgrounds and violations of the null energy condition .