W. Wat Hopkins honored with emeritus status
W. Wat Hopkins, professor of communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The emeritus title may be conferred on retired faculty members who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.
A member of the Virginia Tech community for more than 36 years, Hopkins is a noted scholarly expert on mass communication law — as a teacher of graduate and undergraduate courses in communication and journalism, as a department administrator, and as a representative of the university across the commonwealth and in the local community.
In the classroom, Hopkins taught undergraduate courses in communication law, media writing, and free speech in cyberspace as well as graduate-level special topics courses in communication law.
He wrote five books on legal topics, edited two others, and contributed chapters on legal issues to six volumes. He also wrote 20 articles for law reviews or scholarly journals, 12 encyclopedia entries on legal topics, and 23 peer-reviewed papers on First Amendment topics such as privacy, defamation, and protected speech.
From 2002-21, Hopkins edited Communication Law and Policy, the quarterly research journal of the Association for Education in Journalism and the Mass Communication (AEJMC) Law and Policy Division. He also served on the editorial boards of Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly from 1993 to 2015, Southwestern Mass Communication Journal from 1992-99, and Media Law Notes from 1987-88.
Hopkins was an active member and officer in the AEJMC and the Virginia Coalition for Open Government for nearly 40 years. He received the AEJMC Distinguished Service Award in 2022, the AEJMC Dorothy Bowels Award for Public Service in 2015, and the Henry M. Phillips Research Grant in Jurisprudence from the American Philosophical Society in 1993. He was recognized earlier this year by the 48th Annual AEJMC Southeast Colloquium for significant contributions to legal scholarship and to the AEJMC Law and Policy Division.
Hopkins was expert witness on libel issues in eight court cases between 2000-22. He was appointed by the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates to serve on Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council from 2000-08 and served Montgomery County, Virginia, from 1996 to 2011 as a member of the school board and chaired that body from 2001-03.
Hopkins received his bachelor’s degree from Western Carolina University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
