Conference Organizer

Tori Ekstrand, Ph.D.

Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished Professor for Graduate Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Victoria “Tori” Smith Ekstrand has been a media law and free expression scholar for more than two decades. Before that, she worked as a senior executive for the Associated Press at its headquarters in New York City. She is an associate professor in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

Ekstrand began her research career exploring conflicts between copyright law and the First Amendment.  More recently, her research has focused on critical and interdisciplinary perspectives in media law and free expression, with research on anonymous speech, campus free expression debates, the trademarking of social movement hashtags, online accessibility, and online political advertising. She and her students often engage in mixed methods research, looking at the impacts of First Amendment regulation and case law on the public sphere.