Awards

Titled Professor (Emeritus) - 2014

Chancellor's Professor of Sustainability Studies and Sociology

W. George Pinnell Award for Outstanding Service - 2012

President's Award for Distinguished Teaching - 1994

About Mike F. Keen

Mike Keen is a professor of sociology at Indiana University South Bend and the director of IU South Bend's Center for a Sustainable Future. As director, Keen transformed the Center from a low budget project with no staff, limited technology, and poor location into the driving instigator of sustainability in lifestyle and practice on IUSB's campus. Because of Keen's influence, it has changed the way IUSB students, faculty, and staff approach environmental and green energy issues. As part of his work for the center, Keen helped to develop a course, Sustainability and Innovation, that has since led to the revitalization of IUSB's commitment to sustainability in their curriculum and the development of a minor, which requires students to partner with a local business or campus unit and put their course work into practice. The center has waged a successful campaign for additional campus bike racks, helped construct IU's first LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficient Development) certified building, and established an annual event that disposes a quarter million pounds of computers and electronics without harming the environment.

Keen is the author of "Stalking the Sociological Imagination: J.Edgar Hoover's FBI Surveillance of American Sociology," which won the NCSA Award when it was published in 1999. The book shows how the FBI monitored the activities of sociologists during the Cold War and discusses the consequences of that surveillance.

Keen has been the recipient of numerous distinctions, including the 2011 Inovateus Award for Outstanding Contributions to Sustainability, the IUSB Eldon Lundquist Award, the IU Trustees' Teaching Award, the IUSB Chancellor's Fellowship and the IU President's Award for Distinguished Teaching. His contributions extend to his community as well, as he has also served as a co-chair for South Bend Mayor Stephen J. Luecke's Green Ribbon Commission.