Call for Proposals: Cultures of Copyright
Humanities scholars have a significant role to play in analyzing, charting, and interrogating practices of intellectual property. We invite you to submit proposals for the edited collection Cultures of Copyright.
Deadline for 500–750 word proposals: December 15, 2011 (notification by January 15, 2012)
Humanities scholars have a significant role to play in analyzing, charting, and interrogating practices of intellectual property. Doing so is a humanistic endeavor that connects directly with our history of both interrogating and protecting authorship, and with our history of developing, constructing, and delivering information - in print and digitally, including graphic and other visual arts, and via manuscripts, essays, plays, and much, much more (DeVoss & Porter, 2006; DeVoss & Webb, 2008; Heins & Beckles, 2005; Herrington, 2001, 2003, 2010; Lessig, 2004, 2008, 2009; Logie, 2006; Ray & Graeff, 2008; Reyman, 2010; Westbrook, 2006, 2009).
To deeply understand the dynamics of intellectual property, we require attention to legal issues and cases; to statutes, codes, and exemptions; and to official policies and governmental regulations. We also require deep attention to the cultural considerations surrounding the rhetorics of intellectual property. Cultural considerations, as we frame them for this collection, include (but are not limited to) global and international issues related to intellectual property, feminist research in intellectual property, issues of cultural cannibalism, and considerations of intellectual commons that span time and/or cultures.
This edited collection will attend to these - and other - issues, with a particular focus on the cultural considerations and consequences of what counts as “property” from historical, economic, cultural, religious, digital, etc. perspectives. We invite scholars in rhetoric and composition, English studies, digital humanities, and other related disciplines and subdisciplines to submit proposals for this edited collection.
Questions we invite authors to consider and respond to include, but are not limited to:
How is “culture” typically framed, defined, and/or identified in conversations about intellectual property?
In what ways are the humanities—scholars, movements, curricula, research, and more—implicated in intellectual property issues?
Where are the significant intersections between copyright and humanities scholarship? What intersections have thus far remained invisible or buried?
In what ways and regarding what issues might we predict that the humanities will continue to rub up against copyright? (These might include, for instance, issues of authorship, authorial agency, ownership of texts, etc.)
Of the changes to copyright law in the United States in the past thirty years, what changes have been - or may prove to be - most significant to the humanities?
In what ways do different cultures and bodies of literature approach intellectual property? What competing dynasties andmarginalized voices exist beyond the dominant U.S. copyright paradigm?
In what ways might “the information commons” or the concept of shared or “community-owned knowledge” extend bothwork in and the circulation of knowledge from humanities scholarship?
In what ways might “cultural appropriation” or “cultural cannibalism” be attended to by humanities scholars?
In what ways can the long history of the humanities in analyzing authorship and ownership of texts contribute to how we approach intellectual property issues? How does this long history perhaps submerge issues we might be discussing?
What global, international, or cross-cultural intellectual property issues should humanities disciplines be attentive to?
What are some of the ways in which cultural rhetorics scholarship in intellectual property can inform or extend our approaches to intellectual property? For example, is there a connection between racism and the commodification of culture via intellectual property regimes? A connection with sexism? Where are the intersections between discourses of race and/or gender and intellectual property-related discourse?
The edited collection will likely consist of: 1) an editors’ introduction, which will provide some historical, cultural, legal, and philosophical context drawing from past humanities work attentive to intellectual property; 2) approximately 10–12 chapters addressing issues of intellectual property and culture; and 3) approximately 5–8 mini-chapters focusing on cultural implications and analysis of legal cases/case studies (e.g., an analysis of Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone through a cultural lens).
Deadline for 500–750 word proposals: December 15, 2011 (notification by January 15, 2012)
Deadline for chapter manuscripts: April 15, 2012 (response by May 15, 2012)
Please direct questions and email proposals to:
Dànielle Nicole DeVoss, Michigan State University, devossda(at)msu.edu
Martine Courant Rife, Lansing Community College, martinerife(at)gmail.com
This call for proposals in PDF format.
