Leadership and Staff

Email: sbarbas@buffalo.edu

Samantha Barbas is the director of The Baldy Center. 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: ambenzin@buffalo.edu

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.