Byrd awarded grant from NSF to study group dynamics of coalitions

Scott Byrd, sociology graduate student, has received a $7,500 National Science Foundation grant to study how coalitions operate on a transnational level. Through interviews and surveys with coalitions like the Right to the City Alliance, whose focus is halting urban renewal and others whose topics range from environmentalism to international trade, he aims to learn the "best practices" coalitions employ in order to meet the needs of their constituent organizations. For part of his study, he will travel to Brazil during the winter quarter to meet with several key coalition member groups while also conducting research at Brazil's Institute for Socioeconomic Research.  
 
Funding for this study began in September and runs through August 2009.  
 
Byrd is currently a visiting fellow at Notre Dame University's Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Center for Social Movements and Social Change.