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. Her previous book, Newsworthy: The Supreme Court Battle Over Privacy and Press Freedom (Stanford University Press, 2017), won a silver medal in the U.S. History category of the Independent Publisher Book Award.

Barbas was on the faculty at the University at Buffalo School of Law in Buffalo, New York from 2011 - 2024. 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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