Interdisciplinary Research Collaboratory

Introduction
Over the course of this and last semester, we have been collaborating on a group web-based collaborative research project at the intersection of law and culture -- specifically, the domain of international intellectual property covered by copyright. The collaborative is made up of nine advanced undergraduates from the arts, humanities, and social sciences, three graduate research assistants from Law and Social Sciences and a Professor from the English department The goal of the collaborative was to give the undergraduates an opportunity to participate in basic research and to interact within a collaboratory environment. The output of the collaborative is a group web site that expands the initial research of Professor Woodmansee in her article "Beyond Authorship: Imagining Rights in Traditional Culture and Bio-knowledge" (www.globalauthorship.com).

During the fall semester, Professor Woodmansee led a research session with the three graduate research assistants where the material was selected for the spring syllabus. This initial phase allowed the research assistants to obtain a solid background in both Professor Woodmansee's research and Intellectual Property Law. From this research a working syllabus was created for the undergraduate students who would enroll in the Interdisciplinary Research Collaboratory during the spring semester.

The Interdisciplinary Research Collaboratory was broken down into two parts: the background phase and the research phase. In the background phase students read professor Woodmansee's and her co-collaborator Peter Jaszi's articles on the history of the author-function and how it has affected Intellectual property law both in the United States and Internationally. The students also read intellectual property law and relevant cases, and research surrounding history of the book and its relationship with the new age of Technology. This phase lasted 7 weeks. During this phase students wrote two papers in order to ground their absorption of the research. The papers were each worth 10% of their grade. Participation in the discussion sessions was also worth 10% of their grade. This phase of the class was worth a total of 30% of their overall grades.

During the research phase students were divided into three groups based on their research interests. These groups included: historical research, case study and example research, and international legislation. Each of these groups was led by a graduate research assistant. Students were taught web development and research skills as a group and then assigned specific research tasks in order to expand Professor Woodmansee's original article. Students were graded on a weekly basis; each week was worth 15% of their grade. The end project and the teams overall interaction with the collaborative was worth 10% of their grades. This phase of the class was worth a total of 70% of their grades.

Class was held twice weekly (T-TH, 2:45 4:00). During the first half of the collaborative, these sessions were used to review the material being read by the students. During the second phase of the collaborative these sessions were broken down into two parts: during the first part of the class students met as a class and overall announcements were given, then in the second part of the class students broke into team meetings with their graduate research assistant where each student discussed his or her research and drafts of content were turned in. Students also communicated on a bi-weekly basis with their graduate research assistant and the other members of their teams. Professor Woodmansee and the three graduate research assistants met on a weekly basis in order to review the students' research and turn in drafts.

The content was reviewed in a three phase process. In the first phase the students were assigned a topic and a deadline. They wrote and turned in an initial draft (along with relevant URLs, graphics and other references) to their graduate research assistant. This draft was reviewed by the graduate research assistant and then given to Professor Woodmansee for review. In the second phase, the papers were returned to the students for a second draft. These drafts were turned in and reviewed by graduate research assistants and Professor Woodmansee. Once approved, these documents were posted on the course web site by the webmaster.

Appendix 1: Course Description

ENGL 381, ARTH 384, ANTH 382, PSCL 381, PHIL 381, ECON 381, HSTY 384: Interdisciplinary Research Collaboratory
Professor Woodmansee
Spring 2004
TH 2:45-4:00
Clark 205

Over the course of this and last semester, I have been collaborating as a Teaching Assistant with a group of advanced undergraduates from the arts, humanities, and social sciences, two other teaching assistants from Law and Social Sciences and Professor Woodmansee on a group web-based collaborative research project at the intersection of law and culture -- specifically, the domain of international intellectual property covered by copyright. The goal of the collaborative was to give the undergraduates an opportunity to participate in basic research. The output of the collaborative is a group web site that expands the intial research of Professor Woodmansee.

Our intellectual property law evolved alongside and to a surprising degree in conversation with Romantic aesthetic theory. At the center of copyright is a thoroughly Romantic conception of creative production, or "authorship," as an essentially solitary, individual activity resulting in a unique original "work." Historically this notion of creative production has functioned to marginalize or deny the work of many creative people -- e.g., women, non-Europeans, those working in traditional forms and genres, and individuals engaged in group or collaborative projects, to name but a few. Exposure of these exclusions -- the recovery of marginalized creators and under-appreciated forms of creative production -- has been a central occupation of literary and cultural studies for several decades. But the same cannot be said for the law. While the law participated in the construction of the modern "author," it has yet to be much affected by the "critique of authorship" that we have been witnessing in cultural studies for several decades. The consequences of this lag are significant, for the law of intellectual property plays a large and growing role in determining how wealth is distributed in the real world.

The global consequences of this lag will be the focus of our "research collaboratory." After tracing the emergence of the modern conception of "authorship" in the context of the diverse forms of creative cultural production that it tends to marginalize or deny, we will turn our attention to the way in which this concept operates to distribute intellectual property internationally. Working in small research teams assisted by graduate apprentices, students will investigate how the "author"-driven intellectual property system enables nations of the industrial North to maintain economic and cultural hegemony over information flows at the expense of peoples of the resource-rich South. Our objective will be to write collaboratively a publishable paper setting forth alternative ways of thinking and talking about cultural production that could provide the foundation for a more equitable legal order.

The course is appropriate for advanced undergraduates majoring in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, and especially so if they are contemplating law school. To facilitate the "collaboratory" experiment, enrollment will be capped at 15 students.

[Close Window]