Home > About The Center > Staff > Mary Beckman, Ph.D.
Mary Beckman, Ph.D., is the Center's Associate Director for Academic Affairs and Research. She contributes to the evolving vision of the Center and offers guidance to Center colleagues who direct immersion and community-based learning courses and conduct research on impact of Center efforts on undergraduates and in the local community. She assists faculty at the university with the development of courses through which students engage in the local community, through workshops and consultations and through small grants for course development. She has initiated Center efforts in community-based research and facilitates faculty-student-community investigations that assist local partners. She has participated in the creation of a local coalition attempting to mitigate lead hazards facing children in neighborhoods near the campus, and in other campus-community collaborations.
Mary earned her BA in theology and English from the University of Notre Dame. After a number of years working as an issue organizer in New York City and spending some time in Latin America, she returned to Notre Dame and completed a Ph.D. in economics. She was a tenured faculty member at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania for many years where, in addition to her teaching and scholarship, she directed a first-year seminar writing program, developed with a colleague the college’s writing across the curriculum program, led the creation of a Latin American studies minor, and participated on most major college committees, including tenure and promotion. She returned to Notre Dame in 2001 to assume the position of Associate Director of the Center.
Currently Mary teaches courses on poverty and urban issues through the Department of Economics and Policy Studies. Her publications can be found in a number of journals including College Teaching, Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Radical Teacher, Review of Radical Political Economics, Transformations, and Women's Studies Quarterly.
Email: Mary Beckman, Ph.D.
Center for Social Concerns
168 Geddes Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
