Samantha Barbas, a legal historian and award-winning author, joined the Iowa Law faculty in 2024 as the Aliber Family Chair in Law.

Barbas is a prominent scholar and presenter of legal and media history—with a focus on journalism, privacy, defamation, and the First Amendment—and the award-winning author of seven full-length books. Barbas received the Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2020.

Her most recent book, Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom of the Press in New York Times v. Sullivan (University of California Press), made The New Yorker’s list of the best books of 2023, among other critical accolades. Actual Malice brings fresh insights and analysis in examining New York Times v. Sullivan, a historic 1964 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that provided key protections for news organizations against libel lawsuits. Actual Malice was a finalist for the Order of the Coif Book Award and was honored by the legal publication Green Bag for “exemplary legal writing.”

Her other books include The Rise and Fall of Morris Ernst: Free Speech Renegade (University of Chicago Press, 2021); Confidential Confidential: The Inside Story of Hollywood’s Notorious Scandal Magazine (Chicago Review Press, 2018);  Newsworthy: The Supreme Court Battle Over Privacy and Press Freedom (Stanford University Press, 2017); Laws of Image: Privacy and Publicity in America (Stanford University Press, 2015); The First Lady of Hollywood: A Biography of Louella Parsons (University of California Press, 2005); and Movie Crazy: Fans, Stars, and the Cult of Celebrity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001). Her books have been reviewed and featured in The New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, and on CNN. Her book on the history of hate speech in America will be published by the University of California Press in 2026. 

Barbas lectures on legal history and First Amendment topics. She is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians and gave the 2023 Constitution Day Lecture for the Library of Congress. She has spoken on free speech issues at the Aspen Ideas Festival and the New York Historical Society. Her commentary on libel and First Amendment topics has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, and USA Today, among other publications. 

Barbas was on the faculty at the University at Buffalo School of Law in Buffalo, New York from 2011 – 2024, where she directed the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. Prior to Buffalo, she clerked for Judge Richard Clifton, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. She earned her law degree from Stanford University in 2010 and holds a PhD in history from the University of California, Berkeley.

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