Ganey Collaborative Community-Based Research Mini-Grant Recipients 2004-2005

Jessica Chalmers, assistant professor in the Film, Television and Theater Department, in collaboration with the City of South Bend and graduate students in Notre Dame’s Film, Television and Theater Department, will receive a Rodney F. Ganey, Ph.D., Collaborative Community-Based Research Mini-Grant. The mini-grant supports a theatrical production and book project entitled "Avanti: A Post-Industrial Ghost Story." The project explores the history of the Studebaker Corridor in South Bend and the city’s redevelopment plans for the post-industrial area.

A second research mini-grant will be awarded to John Duffy, Ph.D., director of the University Writing Center at Notre Dame, Kathleen Tonry, M.A., of the Notre Dame English Department, and Gloria Wilkerson, education services manager at The South Bend Tribune. This mini-grant will be awarded for “Writing UP,” a program designed to develop writing skills in children enrolled in South Bend Community Schools.

The mini-grant is intended to encourage research projects undertaken by Notre Dame faculty, students and the local community which "result in measurable, positive impacts in the South Bend area, reflect the investment of faculty expertise in the local community, and offer students community-based learning opportunities that promote civic responsibility."

Rodney Ganey, Ph.D., who is funding this award, served as Associate Director of Notre Dame's Laboratory for Social Research and as a Concurrent Faculty member in the Department of Sociology from 1980 to 1996. During that time, he encouraged community-based research initiatives of fellow Faculty members and graduate students in many ways. Ganey is founder of Press, Ganey Associates, the nation's leading research firm specializing in patient-satisfaction measurement. This award is one element of an initiative in community-based research through the Center for Social Concerns that Dr. Ganey has established as a way of deepening the university's stated commitment to place learning at the service of society.