Leadership and Staff

Baldy Center Logo.

The Baldy Center staff includes faculty, research faculty, administrators, and students who focus on supporting and fostering innovative research in law, legal institutions, and social policy. 

UB law school professor Samantha Barbas was photographed in O’Brian Hall in March 2023. Photographer: Douglas Levere.

UB law school professor Samantha Barbas was photographed in O’Brian Hall in March 2023.
Photographer: Douglas Levere

Samantha Barbas, JD, PhD, Director

Samantha Barbas is the director of The Baldy Center, effective Summer 2019.  Barbas researches and teaches in the areas of legal history, First Amendment law and mass communications law. Her work focuses on the intersection of law, culture, media and technology in United States history. Her recent research has explored the history of the law of privacy and defamation. 

Email: sbarbas@buffalo.edu

Amanda M. Benzin.

Amanda M. Benzin

Email: ambenzin@buffalo.edu

Amanda M. Benzin, MFA, Assistant Director

Amanda M. Benzin is the Assistant Director of The Baldy Center, effective November 28, 2022. She is responsible for managing various activities in The Center. Benzin graduated summa cum laude from UB with a BFA in Dance and minor in Business Administration. She holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Colorado Boulder with concentrations in performance, choreography, women and gender studies, somatics, and pedagogy.

Benzin is a somatically conscious, rhythmically and passionately driven scholar-artist, educator, Emmy-Award-winning performer, choreographer, and administrator. Most recently she served as Dance Program Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Dance at Colorado Mesa University. Benzin's current research exists at the intersection of pedagogy, ethical practices, somatic techniques, and vulnerability.

CV: Amanda M. Benzin

2023-2024 Student Assistants and Multimedia Producers

  • Farrah DeLozier
    UB College of Arts and Science (BA expected 2024)
  • Sheba DeLozier
    UB College of Arts and Science (BA expected 2023)
  • Lawshia Prabath, Blog Host/Producer
    UB School of Engineering and Applied Science, Graduate Program in Data Sciences and Applications (MPS expected 2024)
  • Logan, Podcast Host/Producer
    UB School of Architecture and Planning, Graduate Program in International Development and Global Health (MS expected 2024)


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