Amanda Reid

Amanda Reid is an award-winning teacher and scholar. She teaches media law at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, is an adjunct professor at the UNC School of Law and holds a courtesy appointment at the UNC School of Information and Library Science. In 2024, she was awarded UNC’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction, and in 2023, the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media recognized her excellence in classroom teaching with the David Brinkley Teaching Excellence Award. She is also faculty co-director of the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy and an affiliate researcher at the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP). Her commitment to the Carolina community includes serving as a member on the board of directors of The Daily Tar Heel and serving on the University Committee on Copyright.

Reid is an interdisciplinary legal scholar focusing on the intersection of law, technology and society, with particular emphasis on freedom of expression, intellectual property, privacy and technological governance. Her interest in intellectual property began with branding and trademark law, and she remains fascinated with symbols and semiotics. Her scholarly articles have appeared in peer reviewed journals, flagship law reviews and specialty journals from top law schools, including Yale Law & Policy Review, University of Colorado Law Review, Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, Communication Law and Policy, and Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science, and Technology. Her research has earned top faculty awards at both AEJMC and ICA national conferences. She also co-authors a Wolters Kluwer’s book, "Fundamentals of U.S. Intellectual Property Law: Copyright, Patent, and Trademark" and a monograph titled "International Encyclopaedia of Laws, Intellectual Property Law."

Prior to entering academia, Reid served as a commercial litigation associate with Holland & Knight, LLP (a Vault Top 100 law firm). She also had the opportunity to serve as an elbow clerk for two federal judges. She served as a one-year judicial law clerk for the Honorable Susan H. Black of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and as a two-year judicial law clerk for the Honorable Harvey E. Schlesinger of the Middle District of Florida. Before joining the UNC faculty, Reid was a professor of law and taught intellectual property, real property, trusts and estates, civil procedure, and legal research and writing courses.

Reid earned both a Ph.D. from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and a J.D. from the University of Florida College of Law. While in law school, she was elected editor-in-chief of the University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy — UF’s only interdisciplinary law journal. She also earned an Intellectual Property Certificate by focusing her elective law studies on core intellectual property courses. While in graduate school, she completed a doctoral dissertation titled "Trademark Dilution Law: A Cross-Disciplinary Examination of Dilution and Brand Equity Scholarship." She holds an M.A. degree in speech communications and B.A. degrees in philosophy and in communication from Florida State University. With each of her degrees, she graduated at the top of her class. After earning her law degree, she was invited to join the honorary scholastic society Order of the Coif.