Carol Lansing

Carol Lansing is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She specializes in medieval Italian social, cultural, and religious history with particular emphasis on gender studies. Her research integrates analysis of criminal court records, noble strategies, and marginalized voices in medieval society. Lansing holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (1984).

• Education: Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1984
• Research Focus: Medieval Italy, Cathar heresy, gendered grief laws, legal records of Bologna and Florence, noble families of southern Lazio

Her work bridges cultural practices and power dynamics, notably examining how laws constrained female grief while privileging male decorum in medieval communes. Recent projects include studies of poor women’s legal agency in Bologna’s courts and elite strategies of the Orsini and Colonna families. Lansing has held prestigious fellowships at institutions like Villa I Tatti and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Her awards include the Marraro Prize for Passion and Order and the Albert Outler Prize for Power and Purity. Lansing advises graduate students Susan Schmidt and Mable Wiviott, and her current book project explores strategies of women in poverty through thirteenth-century Bolognese records.