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Charles Goodlett, Elizabeth Kryder-Reid appointed Chancellor’s Professors at IUPUI

May 9, 2019
Chancellor's Professors Charles Goodlett and Elizabeth Kryder-Reid
From left: Chancellor’s Professors Charles Goodlett and Elizabeth Kryder-Reid.Photo by Liz Kaye, Indiana University

IUPUI Chancellor Nasser H. Paydar has appointed Charles Goodlett, a professor in the School of Science, and Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, a professor in the School of Liberal Arts, as prestigious Chancellor’s Professors.

The Chancellor’s Professorship is the most distinguished appointment a faculty member can attain at IUPUI, recognizing extensive records of accomplishment and leadership in teaching, research and service. These senior faculty members retain the title throughout their appointments at IUPUI and comprise a special group of mentors and advisors for colleagues.

“Professor Goodlett and professor Kryder-Reid have dedicated themselves to outstanding research and education at IUPUI, serving as mentors, teachers and scholars for more than 20 years,” Paydar said. “Their appointments as Chancellor’s Professors honor all that they have done to enhance students’ educational experiences, to contribute to the vibrant intellectual community on our campus, and to support the advancements of their disciplines more broadly.”

Chancellor’s Professors are faculty who have demonstrated excellence in their support of IUPUI as an academic community of exceptional quality and integrity and have distinguished themselves in their disciplines through the creation and application of knowledge. Through their leadership and service in their departments, in their schools and across campus, they have reinforced and advanced IUPUI’s mission and vision.

Charles Goodlett

Goodlett, who arrived at IUPUI in 1993, is a professor in the Addiction Neuroscience program in the Department of Psychology in the School of Science.

Much of his research over the last quarter-century has focused on the effects of alcohol on the developing brain using quantitative neuroanatomy and behavioral methods in animal models of human fetal exposure. His work has shown that prenatal alcohol-induced brain damage and subsequent impairments in learning are directly related to blood alcohol content, with binge-like patterns of consumption proving especially damaging to the developing brain. His work showed that during early development of one important region of the brain, the cerebellum, there are relatively well-defined periods of enhanced vulnerability to damage from binge alcohol exposure.

Goodlett is continuing to research neurodevelopment disorders in a collaborative project with Randall Roper studying a mouse model of Down syndrome, while also fueling his passions for mentoring and teaching.

“Service to the campus is what I really value right now; I have dedicated a lot of time in the last five years working on faculty issues through faculty governance,” said Goodlett, who has also served for many years on the IUPUI Research Affairs Committee, including being chairperson in 2008-10. “Mentoring junior faculty is a concern of mine – making sure they’re given the right support and that they are able to navigate the academic landscape to achieve the full potential of their career trajectory.

“We have a very strong neuroscience undergraduate program, and one of the things that we are working on – that I’m taking a bit of a lead on – is developing a capstone research laboratory course that will allow students to gain experience in independent, hypothesis-driven behavioral neuroscience research.

“Being appointed as a Chancellor’s Professor motivates me even more to be a good academic citizen. It encourages me to continue and expand my efforts.”

Elizabeth Kryder-Reid

When Kryder-Reid, a professor of anthropology and museum studies in the School of Liberal Arts, arrived on campus in 1998, museum studies was only an undergraduate certificate program, and when a computer with a student roster was inadvertently sent to university surplus, she had to track down the 11 certificate students individually.

Today, thanks in large part to Kryder-Reid’s leadership as director from 1998-2013, the IUPUI museum studies program is one of the largest in the country, with undergraduate and graduate offerings and a number of dedicated museum studies faculty that few other schools can match.

Kryder-Reid is currently director of the Cultural Heritage Research Center. Her research explores how people appropriate the tangible and intangible remnants of the past and mobilize them in social relationships.

“I’ve always been drawn to questions about the connections of past and present – how we remember the past and represent it in the material forms of public history sites and landscapes as well as museum collections and exhibits,” she said. “The compelling part is trying to understand not just the stories we tell, but why we tell them and how they relate to our contemporary relationships.”

Last month, her book “California Mission Landscapes: Race, Memory, and the Politics of Heritage” won the 2019 Elisabeth Blair MacDougall Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians, which recognizes the most distinguished work of scholarship in the history of landscape architecture or garden design. The book, published in 2016 by University of Minnesota Press, has enjoyed widespread acclaim with awards from groups in landscape studies, history and landscape architecture history.

“I thanked my students in the foreword to that book. Conversations in class about the missions, about these broader questions of narratives, memory, race and politics, as well as about museums and anthropology sites, shaped my thinking about the mission landscapes,” Kryder-Reid said. “Teaching and scholarship are integrally related; each one informs the other.”

Kryder-Reid’s current work includes an environmental justice project, part of a broader international collaboration with the Humanities Action Lab that will include an exhibit coming to Indianapolis’ Central Library next January and public programs developed by IUPUI students.

“I know some of the people from the School of Liberal Arts who have served as Chancellor’s Professors and have admired the way they have crafted their careers to produce important scholarship and be amazing teachers while serving the campus,” Kryder-Reid said. “I’m honored to work in their company.”

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