Anjali Vats

Anjali Vats is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law with a secondary appointment in the Communication Department at the University of Pittsburgh. She previously served as Associate Professor of Communication and African and African Diaspora Studies at Boston College (2014–2021) and held a courtesy appointment at Boston College Law School. Her academic journey includes visiting roles such as Visiting Law Professor at UC Davis School of Law (2016–2017) during an AAUW Postdoctoral Fellowship, and faculty positions at Indiana University’s Department of Communication and Culture. She clerked for Chief Justice A. William Maupin of the Nevada Supreme Court before entering academia.

Education: She holds a JD from Emory University School of Law, LLM and PhD from the University of Washington, and dual BA/BS degrees from Michigan State University.

Research focuses on intersections of race, law, rhetoric, media studies, and intellectual property. Her landmark book The Color of Creatorship (2020) examines how intellectual property laws shape racial and national identities. Recent work addresses cybercrime, postfeminist copyright dynamics, and global racial orders. She co-edited First Amendment Studies on race and free speech, and her articles span law reviews and interdisciplinary journals.

Her scholarship critiques structural whiteness in academia, explores fair use through a racial lens, and advocates for equitable intellectual property frameworks. Awards include the AAUW Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Her research also engages cultural artifacts (e.g., Prince’s legacy, yoga’s commodification) and media narratives. She critiques racial tourism in fashion and analyzes rhetorical strategies for accountability in communication studies.