Image
Degrees
JD, 1996, Columbia University; BA, 1993, Spelman Coll
Bio
Professor Folami is the Associate Dean of Faculty Research and Development and the inaugural Faculty Director for Diversity and Inclusion. In her role as Associate Dean of Faculty Research Development, Professor Folami supports faculty as impact leaders in the areas of public engagement, scholarship, and teaching. In her role as Faculty Director for Diversity and Inclusion, she advises the dean and faculty on infrastructure and resources needed to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in areas of faculty hiring; retention and promotion; student advisement; curriculum; and pedagogy. She also works in collaboration with the assistant dean for diversity and inclusion on faculty-related programs and issues.
Professor Folami began her legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Constance Baker Motley of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She then went on to practice as an associate in the litigation department at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, LLP in New York and then practiced in the technology transaction group of Morrison & Foerster's New York office. While there, Professor Folami developed her practice on a wide range of technology, intellectual property, new media, and Internet-related issues, such as ownership, licensing, e-commerce, online contracting and privacy.
Prior to joining the Hofstra Law community, Professor Folami served as an assistant professor of legal writing at St. John's School of Law. While there, she wrote on issues exploring media consolidation in broadcast radio and its effect on American youth and testified before the Federal Communications Commission regarding her findings. Professor Folami's scholarly interests include the intersection of communications law and media policy and the regulation of speech and cultural expression, particularly hip hop culture, on broadcast radio. She has taught and teaches in the area of the First Amendment, Telecommunications Law, Property, Wills, Trusts and Estates, Estate Administration, Critical Legal Theory, including Critical Race Theory, Feminist Legal Theory and Queer Theory, and Lawyer Leadership. She has also taught a course on Bioethics in the Law in the Law School's online Master of Laws in Health and Policy program.
Curriculum Vitae
Publications
The Shadows of MetroBroadcasting and the Hope of Fisher in Diversifying a Commodified, Gangsterized, and Subverted Hip Hop Public Sphere, Hip Hop and the Law: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement (Palgrave-Macmillan, forthcoming 2014).
Using the Press Clause to Amplify Civic Discourse Beyond Mere Opinion Sharing, 85 Temple L. Rev. 269 (2013).
Deschooling the News Media, Democratizing Civic Discourse, 34 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 489 (2012).
Freeing the Press from Editorial Discretion and Hegemony in Bona Fide News: Why the Revolution Must Be Televised, 34 Colum. J. L. & Arts 367 (2011).
Deliberative Democracy on Air: Reinvigorate Localism - Resuscitate Radio's Subversive Past, 63 Fed. Comm. L. J. 141 (2010).
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the Over-development of Gangsta Rap, Justice Unveiled: African American Culture and Legal Discourse 209 (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009).
"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp Even on Commercial Radio," (October 2009).
From Habermas to "Get Rich or Die Tryin:" Hip Hop, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the Black Public Sphere, 12 Mich. J. Race & L. 235 (2007).
"A New Era for Signatures and Contracts: The E-Sign Act and E-Commerce," Alley Way Magazine, October/November 2000.