Reid recognized for outstanding post-baccalaureate instruction
Today, UNC Hussman Associate Professor Amanda Reid wears a suit jacket, a blue blouse and slacks. She’s lecturing her class of graduate students about the different levels of scrutiny that can be applied to a case of law. As the students will soon find out, her outfit represents more than just a fashion choice. It’s a teaching tool: just one of many devices that Reid uses to make learning media law not only accessible, but fun.
Reid teaches multiple media law classes for graduate students at UNC Hussman. This year, she received the University’s 2024 Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-baccalaureate Instruction, an honor that celebrates her academic enthusiasm and engaging teaching style.
The slacks she’s wearing today are part of that teaching style. Students often have trouble understanding the concept of scrutiny, or what standard of proof and legal analysis is applied to a case, but Reid tells them that it’s as easy as wearing a pair of pants.
“Strict scrutiny is some skinny jeans, intermediate scrutiny is some bootcut jeans, rational basis is some gray baggy sweatpants,” Reid said.
Reid uses these types of colloquial examples to make media law concepts more memorable, but she also does it to comfort students who feel anxious entering the course.
“I teach a required class that a lot of students come into with a bit of trepidation and not a lot of enthusiasm,” Reid said. “It's my job to convert them or to reduce the barriers of anxiety such that I can actually get them to learn, and I take that on as a challenge, and I love it.”
The course is especially stress-inducing for graduate students who have had negative experiences with learning law in undergrad, said Clay Williams, an M.A. student at UNC Hussman.
“I think going into it, a lot of us — and I speak for my cohort — were very apprehensive about taking it just because some of us have been burned by our undergrad law classes wherever we took them,” Williams said.
But Williams said that Reid not only acknowledges their apprehension but embraces it.
“That’s why I really admire Dr. Reid as a professor and as a person,” Williams said. “She kind of knew that we didn’t really care [about law going in], but she tailored the class and taught it in a way where us non-law folks could, one, understand what the hell she was talking about and, two, actually begin to care about what was happening.”
Reid works hard to help her students understand the role of media law in the classroom so that they can apply it to real world issues and current events.
“There are so many defamation cases, there are so many privacy cases, there are so many copyright cases, and [for them] to look around and read the news and then be able to say, ‘Oh, I understand what's going on’ … I find that deeply satisfying, just to help students understand the world around them,” Reid said.
Reid’s passion for media law is nothing new. She worked at a law firm and served as a judicial law clerk for multiple courts, then went on to teach law for eight years before coming to UNC-Chapel Hill. In addition to her classes at UNC Hussman, she teaches part-time at the UNC School of Law most semesters.
"This is such a well-deserved honor that recognizes Amanda's unique teaching style and deep dedication to her students — qualities that she shares with so many of her UNC Hussman faculty colleagues," said Raul Reis, dean of the school. "Amanda's excellence in teaching is well-known and celebrated within our community. She was recognized last year with the school's prestigious David Brinkley Teaching Award."
Reid’s area of interest has always been in freedom of expression and intellectual property, namely with applying trademark law to symbols and semiotics. Everything from brand logos to roadside memorial signs has piqued her curiosity, and her research is published in top law journals.
Scholarship is something she tries to instill in her students, said Lucinda Austin, the school’s associate dean for graduate studies and research.
“One thing I've seen is her encouraging and promoting scholarship, trying to encourage students to do things with the papers they produce in her classes,” Austin said. “If there’s a paper she thinks has a potential to be published or to be presented at a conference, then she really does try to further that and mentor students and work toward those goals.”
Individual research projects are a large part of the curriculum for the graduate “MEJO 740: Media Law” class. Students choose a topic relating to law and do original research, producing anything from a paper to a presentation.
Williams said he originally struggled to think of a project topic, but that he was one of many students who Reid helped after class and in office hours.
“I’ve definitely sat in her office for hours on end trying to figure out what I was going to do,” Williams said. “But I think that is to her credit — she's willing to not only teach the subject in a way that we can understand it, but she's excited about it, she's really passionate about it and her ultimate goal is to make sure that her students can succeed.”
After hours of talking it through together, Williams finally settled on a topic and wrote a paper about the recent restrictions on drag performances across North Carolina in 2023. It’s now submitted to a journal and is in the process of being reviewed, but Reid still checks in with Williams regularly.
“I took her class last semester, so it's been months since I sat in a classroom with her, but she's still emailing me every other week, like, ‘any updates on the paper?’” Williams said.
In addition to an influx of students, Reid’s office in Carroll Hall is also home to a variety of posters and knickknacks. The most prominent decorations are the giant pieces of poster paper on the door, which showcase assignments her students did in class when tasked with applying a law to a made-up legal situation.
“The assignment gives them the opportunity to really develop a little bit of empathy for policymakers about how hard it is to craft a rule,” Reid said. “And then I post them on my office door for two reasons: one, because I'm a proud mama and I want to show off their hard work and, two, to help them find my office.”
Her open communication inside and outside of the classroom fosters an environment where students feel supported, Austin said. “She's always so quick to respond to students, she’s very on top of it, and I think for students that makes a really big difference — having someone who they know is really committed, really cares, is really invested in their work and is trying to make that work relevant for them.”
Reid’s love for teaching is not contingent on recognition or accolades, but she said that receiving the post-baccalaureate award does validate the effectiveness of her instruction.
“The classroom is my happy place,” Reid said. “I just really enjoy teaching, and it’s deeply satisfying to understand that it's well received.”