Rate My Professor Carol Lanham

Carol Cirulli Lanham is a Professor of Instruction in Sociology in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas, where she also serves as Associate Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and COIL Coordinator. She coordinates the expansion of Virtual Exchange/Collaborative Online International Learning projects and holds a Fulbright Specialist appointment from the U.S. State Department for 2021–2025 to provide professional development in online teaching and virtual exchange at foreign institutions. Lanham earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Government from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Science in Business Administration from Boston University, a Master of Science in Applied Sociology from UT Dallas in 2009, and a PhD in Public Policy and Political Economy from UT Dallas in 2011. Prior to joining the UT Dallas faculty in 2011, she worked as a journalist and author. Since 2013, she has served as Assistant Dean for the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, first focusing on undergraduate education and later on outreach and community engagement. She developed and teaches the freshman seminar Critical Issues in the Social Sciences to all first-year students in the school.

Lanham's courses include Deviance (since 2011), Sociology of Religion: The Vatican (2018–2019), and Contemporary Social Issues taught in Paris (2022, 2023) and Toulouse (2024). Her academic interests encompass virtual exchange pedagogy for global engagement, online teaching, deviance, immigration, crime, social control, and public health. Key publications are the 2011 peer-reviewed journal article "Lessons in Sobriety: An exploratory study of graduate outcomes at a recovery high school," and 2021 chapters "Inclusive Alternatives to Study Abroad" and "Virtual Exchange: Expanding Access to Global Learning." She received the 2021 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award from the University of Texas System, the 2018 UT Dallas President’s Teaching Excellence Award in Online/Blended Instruction, the 2019 EPPS Outstanding Teaching Award for Online Teaching, and the 2011 EPPS Outstanding Faculty Award; the school's online teaching award was renamed the Carol Cirulli Lanham Online Teaching Award in 2020. Lanham is a Fellow in the UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers since 2022 and secured a $5,000 UT System Curricular Innovation Grant in 2021 for virtual exchange expansion. She has chaired the Committee on Distance Learning since 2022, served on the International Education Taskforce (2020–2023), and delivered keynotes such as at the 2021 SHOUT4HE Conference.