Dr. Karen Goodchild, Chapman Family Professor of Humanities and chair of the Department of Art and Art History, is Wofford’s recipient of the South Carolina Independent Colleges & Universities’ Exellence in Teaching Award. The organization recognized faculty from each of its 20-member schools.
This is the 14th year SCICU has recognized faculty with the awards, which have rigorous guidelines and come with a $3,000 professional development grant.
“The 20 SCICU member institutions share a deep commitment to student achievement,” says SCICU President and CEO Jeff Perez. “The SCICU Excellence in Teaching Award recipients embody that dedication by providing an education that is second-to-none and inspiring their students to become leaders in their professions and communities.”
At Wofford, Goodchild teaches courses including ancient art, Renaissance art, gender in the early modern period, surveys of African art and pre-modern Western art and practice-based classes involving community engagement. She has traveled with students to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Greece.
“I am very fortunate to be at Wofford,” Goodchild says. “I have been able to teach the history of art both broadly and deeply to excellent students and have had resources to continue my scholarly work. Additionally, Wofford has always been an enthusiastic partner in my interests in increasing gender parity in the curriculum and for faculty and staff.”
A scholar of the early modern period in Italy, Goodchild has recently published articles on landscape theory, Giorgio Vasari, Piero di Cosimo and Agnolo Bronzino. Her research has appeared in scholarly journals including “Artibus et Historiae” and “Source,” as well as in the Ashgate Research Companion to Giorgio Vasari (2016). She co-edited the volume “Green Worlds in Early Modern Italy: Art and the Verdant Earth” (Amsterdam University Press, 2019), which includes her essay “Naturalism and Antiquity, Redefined, in Vasari’s Verzure.”
As a department chair, Goodchild oversaw the planning of the Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts and helped launch the college’s studio art major. She also guides and oversees all advanced independent research in art history.
Committed to gender equity, Goodchild is the co-founder of Wofford’s Gender Studies Program and the college’s Women in Leadership Initiative.
“When I was new at Wofford, a colleague told me that Wofford was a place where, if I had an idea and the passion and energy to commit to it, I would find support to make it happen,” Goodchild says. “I have found that to be true across my career.”