Consuela (Chela) G. Metzger
Consuela (Chela) G. Metzger, a nationally recognized and award-winning expert in the field of book conservation, will present “Old Books, New Ideas—Transformations of a Rare Book Conservator” on April 18 at ϳԹ.
Metzger’s presentation at IUP is part of IUP’s Big Ideas: Transformative Culture and the Professions, supported by the Teagle Foundation – National Endowment of the Humanities.
Metzger is the head of the Preservation and Conservation Department for the University of California–Los Angeles Library. Her presentation is at 5:00 p.m. at , room 225. It is free and open to the community.
Throughout her influential career spanning more than two decades, Metzger has held multiple teaching and book conservation positions: conservator at Huntington Library in San Marino, California, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; lecturer of preservation and conservation studies at the University of Texas at Austin; and conservator of library collections and affiliated assistant professor in art conservation at Winterthur/University of Delaware.
Metzger recently won the 2018 American Institute of Conservation’s Sheldon and Caroline Keck Award for a sustained record of excellence in the education and training of conservation professionals. She was also the recipient of a rare book conservation internship at the Library of Congress in 1994 and was awarded a three-month teaching Fulbright to teach book conservation in Argentina in 2000.
In addition to her degrees from the Evergreen State College and Simmons College, she holds a certificate in hand bookbinding from North Bennet Street School and was selected for the North Bennet School’s 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award. In announcing Metzger as the recipient, school officials recognized Metzger as “responsible for the education of many book conservators through her various roles in conservation education.”
In addition to these accomplishments, Metzger continues teaching and consulting in Latin America, occasionally exhibits as a book artist, and is a proud supporter of local libraries.
In August 2022, Lynn Botelho, IUP Distinguished University Professor and professor of history, received a $200,000 grant from the Teagle Foundation – National Endowment for the Humanities to implement the Big Ideas: Transformative Culture and the Professions program at IUP. IUP continues as the only university in ϳԹ selected for the Teagle Cornerstone: Integrated Liberal Arts grant.
“Bringing Chela Metzger to our campus complements and supports our ongoing discussions and Big Ideas programming,” Botelho said. “Both Indiana and the IUP communities will be inspired by her story and her work,” she said.
“In addition to the Teagle Foundation – National Endowment for the Humanities, I want to thank all of our ongoing supporters, including the College of Arts and Humanities, the Office of Social Equity and Title IX, the University College, the Career and Professional Development Center, Promising Scholars, alumni and private donors, and IUP’s senior leadership. I can’t express how impactful this support has been on the program and our Big Ideas students” she said.
As part of the Big Ideas project, Botelho, along with Big Ideas co-directors Bryna Siegel Finer and Melanie Holm, faculty in the IUP English Department, are leading a team of faculty across the university to offer the certificate program, which is designed to integrate and embed the liberal arts into student career preparation.
The program is specifically designed for preprofessional and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students, but is open to students in all majors. Students who complete the program will earn the Big Ideas certificate. The Big Ideas program also provides students with career-specific undergraduate research experiences. The program is designed to integrate the humanities into students’ credit loads, rather than adding additional time and expense.
Every IUP student is required to complete 40 credits of Liberal Studies courses (depending on the major); Big Ideas courses count toward the IUP Liberal Studies requirements. Two College of Arts and Humanities classes (which qualify for Liberal Studies credit) lay the foundation in the students’ first year through the reading and discussion of transformative texts. In the process, students acquire a deeply personal relationship with their education and take agency over the career professional they seek to become.
More than 200 IUP students began IUP’s Big Ideas program during the 2022–23 academic year, with over 300 additional students enrolled during the 2023–24 academic year.
During years two and three of the program, Big Ideas students take additional humanities courses in one or more of the four themes that reflect their career interests: Law and Government; Mind, Body, and Health; Management, Information, and Organization; and Science and the Environment.
During their senior year, students integrate their preprofessional and humanities training into a final capstone project.
“The program has gone extraordinarily well at IUP; faculty and staff are excited to be part of the program, and students are actively engaged and enthusiastic about the program,” Botelho said. “It’s very gratifying to see those ‘lightbulb moments’ during discussions and in their writing,” she said.
Because of IUP’s success and the great participation by students, the Teagle Foundation has selected IUP to be showcased in its outcomes video; professionals from the Teagle Foundation visited IUP in April to capture footage during a class and interview students in IUP’s program.
“This is a great testament to the success of IUP’s program and the quality of our students’ work,” Botelho said.
“In this program, students work closely with faculty to gain a deeper understanding of the modern world and communicate more effectively across all disciplines. Students learn critical and creative thinking and the understanding that there are often nontechnical answers to seemingly technical problems,” Botelho said.
“Transformative texts” are defined as major works of literature, philosophy, historical sources, and religious books, as well as theater, poetry, and song, that encourage creative thinking, imaginative capacities, and problem solving. These texts are defined by the Big Ideas work group, in consultation with expert resource people and teaching faculty, and the work group collects feedback from Big Ideas faculty and adjusts texts according to student compatibility.
Botelho received an initial $25,000 planning grant from the Teagle Foundation in 2020 to plan and pilot the Big Ideas initiative. With the support of this planning grant, the planning committee was able to work across the university to build the appropriate relationships with campus partners and incorporate resources into the program itself.
Big Ideas partners include the Kathleen Jones White Writing Center, the University College, the Center for Career and Professional Development, the Lively Arts, and the Promising Scholars program.
“The Big Ideas certificate is the result of robust collaboration between faculty members in the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and the professions as they codesign a curriculum in a financially sustainable way and with the particular needs of IUP students at its core,” Botelho said.
The initial funding also allowed Botelho to speak at the Aspen Institute; to host an IUP reflective practice meeting; and to bring Melinda Zook, a professor of history at Purdue University who has been recognized for excellence in teaching, to IUP’s campus for a public presentation and a faculty workshop. Zook developed the Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts program at Purdue, an undergraduate program designed to reach all students and encourage them to broaden their understanding of the world and themselves and to strengthen their communication and critical-thinking skills through general education courses.
Subsequently, Big Ideas—with the help of key sponsors—hosted the public intellectual, Roosevelt Montas, to discuss his book Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation to a full house in Gorell Auditorium. IUP has more recently taken the Big Ideas message abroad, with Holm presenting at the North Eastern Modern Language Association in Boston, and Oksana Moroz presenting at the American Association of Applied Linguistics in Houston.
“This outreach elevated IUP’s reputation while spreading awareness of the Big Ideas certificate,” Botelho said.