James M. Lang, Ph.D

Professor of English

Director of the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence


Degrees Earned

Ph.D., Northwestern University; English, 1997
Thesis Title: “Dialogues with History in Post-War British Fiction”
M.A., St. Louis University; English, 1993
B.A., University of Notre Dame; English/Philosophy; 1991

Undergraduate Courses Taught

Senior Seminar: 21st-Century British Literature and Culture
Senior Seminar: John Fowles and Iris Murdoch
Senior Seminar: Aesthetics and Literature
Postcolonial Literature
Contemporary British Novel
Writing Workshop: Creative Nonfiction
Aesthetics
British Literature Survey II
Approaches to Reading and Interpretation
Writing Workshop: Argument and Persuasion
Introduction to Literature
Composition
Life Stories

Publications & Editorships

Books

Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It. New York: Basic Books, 2020.

New Approaches to Teaching the Literature Surveys. Co-editor, with John A. Staunton and Gwynn Dujardin. Morgantown, WV: University of West Virginia Press, 2017.

Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2016.

Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.

On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.

Essays

Distracted Minds: 3 Ways to Get Their Attention in Class.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. October 19, 2020.

Distracted Minds: Why Your Students Can’t Focus.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. September 14, 2020.

In Dispiriting Times, It Helps to Get ‘Lost in Thought.'” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. July 28, 2020.

What Do Our Most Vulnerable Students Need This Fall?” To Be on Campus. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. June 3, 2020.

On Not Drawing Conclusions About Online Teaching Now–Or Next Fall.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. May 18, 2020.

What I Am Learning About My Students During an Impossible Semester.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. April 1, 2020.

“Improving My Teaching via Podcast.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. September 10, 2015.

“Building a Better Discussion.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. July 20, 2015.

“Smart Praise for Students.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. June 17, 2015.

“Cheating Inadvertently.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. May 4, 2015.

“The 3 Essential Functions of Your Syllabus, Part II. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. March 30, 2015.

“The 3 Essential Functions of Your Syllabus, Part I. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. March 30, 2015.

“Waiting for Us to Notice Them.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. January 19, 2015.

“Educating Minds Online.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. December 8, 2014.

“Is Practice Overrated?” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. November 5, 2014.

“Stop Blaming Students for Your Listless Classroom.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. September 29, 2014.

“How Students Learn from Games.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. August 25, 2014.

“Being Nehru for 2 Days.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. July 21, 2014.

“Top 10 Books on Teaching.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. June 11, 2014.

“Making it Stick.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. April 23, 2014.

“Getting Beyond Brain Games.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. March 10, 2014.

“Revision and the Rhodes.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. February 10, 2014.

“Enough with the ‘Lifelong Learning’ Already.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. January 22, 2014.

“’Yay Math!’” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. December 17, 2013.

“The Lorax’s Dilemma.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. November 25, 2013.

“How Orwell and Twitter Revitalized My Course.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. October 28, 2013.

“How Do You Talk Shop When You’re Shuttling Between Campuses?” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. September 12, 2013.

“News Flash . . . Harvard Students Cheat, Too.” Time. Online. September 11, 2013.

Presentations

Small Teaching: From Minor Changes to Major Learning, University of Missouri Celebration of Teaching, May 21, 2019.

Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty, Brown University, February 14, 2019.

Teaching Distracted Minds, Villanova University, September 20, 2019.

Grants and Awards

Paul Ziegler Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship, 2019.

Fulbright Specialist Grant, Bogota and Barranquilla, Colombia, 2016.

Consultant, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Education For Justice Initiative, 2018-Present.

Series Editor, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, University of West Virginia Press. 2014-Present.

Consulting Editor, College Teaching, 2010-Present.

Professional Affiliations

Modern Language Association, 1992-Present