The University of Texas at Dallas honored its latest endowed chairs and professors along with their supporters at an investiture ceremony before honorees’ families, colleagues and friends April 17 in the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building Lecture Hall.
“UT Dallas is one of the nation’s youngest premier research universities,” Dr. Richard C. Benson, UT Dallas president and the Eugene McDermott Distinguished University Chair of Leadership, said at the ceremony. “But despite our youth, with high-caliber faculty like those being honored today, we are national leaders in learning and discovery.”
The event celebrated faculty members in the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology; the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences; the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences; the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science; the Naveen Jindal School of Management; and the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Among the honorees this year was Dr. Paula Cuellar Cuellar from the Bass School. Cuellar Cuellar joined the university this January as both an assistant professor of history and as a faculty member of the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies. She teaches courses on post-conflict societies in Latin America and their transitions to democracy, investigates disappearances in Mexico and Central America, and analyzes genocide in Latin America and its impact on women. She is now named the Fellow, Jacqueline and Michael Wald Professor. Jacqueline and Michael Wald created the professorship in 2017 to increase knowledge of the Holocaust and to promote the understanding, avoidance and elimination of antisemitism, genocide, bigotry and similar societal malfeasance.
“These appointments are given in recognition of the insights and passions that have grown from the professors’ years of research and teaching,” Benson said. “Investiture also marks a personal milestone for each recipient and a sure point of pride for family and friends in attendance.”
Endowed chairs and professorships, a tradition dating back 500 years, are the highest academic award the University can bestow on a faculty member. The endowments, funded through philanthropic donations, fund initiatives that advance research and instructional programs.