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Dr. Sanaz Alasti

Awarded by the Reaud Honors College to any instructional faculty in any school or discipline who demonstrates excellence in honors education

2024-2025

Dr. Sanaz Alasti (Professor of Criminal Justice) aims to create transformative classroom experiences that bridge theory with practice and empower students to contribute meaningfully to scholarly and professional communities. She is passionate about global awareness and especially student learning opportunities.

She is the author of 10 books in the field of criminal justice, taught three innovative honors courses—Penology: History of Crime and Punishment; Law & Order: Justice and Injustice Across the World; and Death Penalty—that challenge students to analyze justice systems through historical and global lenses and is founder of the International Conference on Criminal Justice Reform and Founder of the Center for Death Penalty Studies here at °ÅÀÖÊÓƵ.

She is admired by her colleagues at °ÅÀÖÊÓƵ: "Dr. Alasti is an international scholar and teacher who brings extraordinary knowledge and vision to the classroom. She has a breadth of experience that many faculty never achieve due to her cross-cultural background, networks, and travel."

Dr. Alasti is also admired by colleagues in her field, including this acknowledgment sent to us from a colleague at Harvard University: "Over the years, I have followed Sanaz Alasti's work on capital punishment from a comparative law perspective, especially her studies of the United States, Islamic countries, and Israel. Aided by her knowledge of Middle Eastern languages and cultures, Alasti has made significant research contributions in the study of comparative criminal justice systems and on the role of religion in the punishment of crime. She is delivering to the U.S. legal and social science communities powerful insights revealing the workings of criminal justice systems from around the world."

Dr. Bianca Easterly

Awarded by the Reaud Honors College to any instructional faculty in any school or discipline who demonstrates excellence in honors education

2023-2024 - INAUGURAL YEAR

Dr. Bianca Easterly (Associate Professor of Political Science) has taught a variety of undergraduate political sciences courses, including Honors American Government in the Reaud Honors College, and was selected by our honors students as Honors Professor of the Year in 2017-2018. She is also one of the first honors professors to integrate students’ ePortfolios into her honors coursework, encouraging our honors students to showcase their projects analyzing real problems faced by local cities and presenting solutions implemented by other cities that could resolve contemporary political issues.  

“Through her role as a mentor in my life, I truly believe that Dr. Easterly genuinely cares about the overall success of her students both inside and outside of the classroom,” one of her students said.

Inside the classroom, the student shared with us, Dr. Easterly engages her students in critical thinking through activities that include forming political parties, participating in mock elections, and conducting semester-long research analyzing city government initiatives. Outside of the classroom, her mentorship has included summer opportunities for honors students that ranged from coding state bills introduced in the state legislature to providing rural education distance programming, expanding on the challenges facing college students while voting in Texas elections. 

“Through her counsel and support in our career, academic, and individual objectives,” the student said, “she has clearly conveyed her interest in our success as honors students.”