Arts Administration
The Arts Administration programs at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Research
photo taken by Ann Schertz
Assistant Professor, Jen Shang, along with her research staff at WFIU
The School of Public and Environmental Affairs takes pride in the excellence, and public impact, of its research. It is especially renowned in the fields of philanthropy and nonprofit management, and Arts Administration faculty work closely with the Center on Philanthropy, a national leader in research on the nonprofit sector.
Beth Gazley
Beth Gazley researches aspects of voluntarism and volunteer management, inter-sectoral relations and collaboration. Currently, Professor Gazley is involved in research projects that examine the role of voluntary organizations in emergency planning, the capacity of community organizations to involve student service-learners, and collaborative motivations and collaborative capacity in intersectoral partnerships. She recently completed an international study of association volunteers in collaboration with the American Society of Association Executives. See her complete profile.
Kirsten A. Grønbjerg
Kirsten A. Grønbjerg holds the Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy at the Center on Philanthropy. Her research focuses on the nonprofit sector broadly defined-its structure and composition, the sector's funding relationships (especially with government, philanthropic, and other institutional funders), its management challenges, and its community dimensions. She has paid particular attention to nonprofits in the fields of human services and community development and to a range of methodological issues associated with generating systematic information on the sector. Her current research focuses on the scope and community dimensions of the Indiana nonprofit sector. She is the author of a number of books, articles, and reports on the nonprofit sector, nonprofit funding relations, and American welfare policies. See her complete profile and CV.
Michael Rushton
Michael Rushton has research interests in cultural policy, tax policy, and nonprofit organizations. In the field of cultural policy he has published articles on copyright, freedom of expression, other legal rights of artists, the role of nonprofits in the arts, and public funding of the arts (especially the use of earmarked taxes for the arts). His current research projects include cultural districts and the relationship between the arts and urban and rural economic growth, the use of economic analysis in arts advocacy, the taxation of nonprofit organizations, and measuring the impact of racial and ethnic diversity on voting behavior and social capital. See his complete profile and CV.
Jen Shang
Jen Shang joins the SPEA and Arts Administration faculty in August 2009. Her doctoral thesis examined the psychological antecedents and consequences of donation behavior through the theoretical lenses of social psychology and marketing. During the past six years she has been conducting a national study of the motivations for giving in the public radio industry using field experiments, surveys and focus groups. This research is funded by research grants totaling $350K from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Science Foundation, the Aspen Institute and the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Future research will investigate when, how and why a person's complex view of themselves affects and is affected by their voluntary contributions to nonprofit organizations. See her complete profile.
