 |
|
The Polis Center
at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
is a nationally recognized academic research center with a practical
and applied orientation. Its focus is on urban issues, including
neighborhoods, community planning, economic development, education,
religion, and culture. The Center applies its knowledge of advanced
information technology to problems and community concerns. It
has compiled the most comprehensive set of historical, demographic,
and other data available on Greater Indianapolis. Its recent
six-year study on religion and the community generated the largest
collection of meaningful religious data ever gathered on one
American city, challenging closely held assumptions and providing
significant fuel for positive dialogue in communities across
the country. The Polis Center staff numbers more than 40 professionals
with expertise in sociology, anthropology, history, religion,
education, communication, business, government, community development,
geography, and advanced information technologies.
|
 |
|
David J. Bodenhamer,
PhD, Director of The Polis Center, supervises a staff
of more than 40 full-time research, technical, and support
positions in the Center's three divisions: Information Systems
Technology, Community Systems, and Heritage and Culture. He
is responsible for establishing the Center's mission and goals
and for securing the necessary human and financial resources
to accomplish these. He represents the Center to its constituents
and clients within and outside the university.
Before joining IUPUI in 1989 as the founding director of The
Polis Center, Bodenhamer was an administrator at the University
of Southern Mississippi and represented the university before
numerous state, regional, and national groups. An active researcher,
he is the author or editor of six books and more than two
dozen book chapters and journal articles. In addition, he
has made more than 75 presentations at conferences around
the world, and has served as project director for more than
150 research, training, and implementation grants and contracts.
He earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1977.
|
 |
|
Arthur E. Farnsley
II, PhD, Director of Research, holds an M.A.R. from
Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in religion and society
from Emory University. His book, Rising Expectations: Urban
Congregations, Welfare Reform and Civic Life is available
from Indiana University Press. He is also the author of Southern
Baptist Politics: Authority and Power in the Restructuring
of an American Denomination (Penn State Press, 1994) and contributing
author in Nancy Ammerman's> Congregation and Community (Rutgers
Press, 1997). His work has appeared in The Christian Century,
Religious Studies News, Review of Religious Research, Contemporary
Sociology, and Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly as
well as in several edited volumes and on the op-ed pages of
newspapers across the country. He is currently editing the
Project on Religion and Urban Culture's capstone book, Sacred
Circles and Public Squares, due out in late 2003.
|
|
|
|
|
