A Ball State search committee selected Connolly, who spent the last year as interim director, to lead the center. The unit was created in 1980 to build on the research conducted by sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd, whose landmark studies "Middletown"and "Middletown in Transition" investigated life in Muncie during the 1920s and 1930s.

"As acting director over the past year I have learned that the center offers Ball State a means to enhance its reputation and increase its grant funding," Connolly said. "My work with journalists, scholars and teachers has convinced me of the continuing appeal of the Middletown idea. 

"The rich body of research on Middletown also provides a launching point for other lines of inquiry," he said. "The current interest in the culture and politics of 'red states versus blue states' offers the center an opportunity to sponsor and disseminate research on middle America. I envision the center expanding its reach into various areas of research, raising its profile and making it more self sustaining in the process."

Connolly succeeds Bruce Geelhoed, chair of Ball State's history department, who was the center's director from 1991-04.

Connolly's research focuses on urban and ethnic politics from 1870 to 1930. He is the author of "The Triumph of Ethnic Progressivism: Urban Political Culture in Boston, 1900-1925," as well as several articles and essays. He joined Ball State in 1996 after receiving his doctorate in American history in 1995 from Brandeis University. Connolly received his master's in 1989 from the University of Massachusetts Boston and a bachelor's degree in 1984 from the College of the Holy Cross.

More information about the Center for Middletown Studies can be found online at www.bsu.edu/middletown.

(Note to editors: For more information contact, jconnolly@bsu.edu or (765) 215-8037.)