[Reader-list] Call for Student Stipends for Research on Inequalities, Conflicts and Intellectual Property

[Jeebesh Bagchi]

Contested Commons/Trespassing Publics ::
A Conference on Inequalities, Conflicts and Intellectual Property
6th - 8th January 2005 in New Delhi
    
Call for Student Stipends for Research on Inequalities, Conflicts and 
Intellectual Property

The Sarai Programme of the Centre for Study of Developing Societies, New 
Delhi and Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore invite students of all 
disciplines (e.g. law, history, literature, media, anthropology, 
sociology, politics, philosophy, economics) to participate in the 
student workshop which precedes the conference and act as public 
rapporteurs to the conference.

To apply, you must submit your CV and a 600 word note exploring any one 
of the themes of the conference and displaying a keen understanding of 
the contemporary conflicts surrounding intellectual property, in the 
context of social inequality. We encourage students to write 
inter-disciplinary essays which display a careful attention to the 
thematics of the conference rather than academic essays such as 
submitted at your University.

The conference brief

The past three years have seen conflicts over the regulation of 
information, knowledge and cultural materials increase in intensity and 
scope. This conflict has widened to include new geographical spaces, 
particularly China, India, South Africa and Brazil. Moreover, a range of 
new problems, including the expansion of intellectual property 
protection to almost all spheres of our social life, has intensified the 
nature of the conflict. Here it is important to recognize that the 
nature of the conflict gets configured differently as we move from the 
United States and Europe to social landscapes marked by sharp 
inequalities in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

In the light of these transformations, we would like to revisit earlier 
discussions on creativity, innovation, authorship, and the making of 
property. Is it possible to draw comparative registers between earlier 
histories of violence and dispossession that accompanied the making of 
property, and the current turbulence around intellectual property on 
world scale? In this conference, we would like to push comparative 
discussions between earlier and contemporary moments of dispossession 
and criminalisation, between the open source movement and discussions on 
traditional knowledge and bio-diversity. We would also like to build a 
dialogue between different moments in media history: print, film, music 
and the new media, so as to prise open questions around culture, 
circulation and property.  

The submission process

All submissions should be emailed to  <ipstudent at sarai.net> by September 
30th 2004.

We will select 20 students who will be informed by 1st November 2004.

Travel  expenses, board and lodge, as well as a modest per diem, will be 
provided to the candidates for attending the workshops and the 
Conference. Selected students will participate in the student workshop 
prior to the Conference on 4th January 2004 and act as public 
rapporteurs to the Conference. We will encourage students to be 
experimental in using varied strategies to disseminate the conference 
proceedings.

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Conference Editors:
 >From Sarai/CSDS: Jeebesh Bagchi, Ravi Sundaram
 >From ALF: Lawrence Liang, Sudhir Krishnaswamy
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Sarai
Center for Study of Developing Studies (CSDS)
29, Rajpur Road
Delhi 110054, India
Ph: 91 11 23960040
Fax: 91 11 23943450
Email: <ipl at sarai.net>

Alternative Law Forum (ALF)
122/4 Infantry Road,
Bangalore 560 001, Karnataka
Phone: 91 80 22865757
Email: <alforum at vsnl.net>
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