(Write On! is an occasional item about notable calls for papers)Organizers are seeking papers on "gender and the production of traditional cultural knowledge" for the 8th Annual Symposium on IP/Gender: Mapping the Connections, to be held in D.C. on April 1, 2011, by the Program on Information Justice & Intellectual Propert, the Women and the Law Program, and the Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law, all at American University Washington College of Law. The special theme for this year's symposium is Gender and Traditional Cultural Expressions.
The full call for papers takes note of a relevant, 2010 initiative by the World Intellectual Property Organization, then states that such
developments have given new prominence to the question of what useful role intellectual property may play in correcting underlying historical imbalances. In many places, women are deemed to be the most important practitioners andcustodians of certain old arts, with many cultural 'traditions' being passed primarily or exclusively from one generation of women to the next. Therefore, the consequences of introducing IP regimes in this area may have special significance for women and their communities, or may reflect underlying assumptions about gender, women's proper role in decolonization and development, and the distributive consequences of IP regimes. This workshop seeks to examine those questions in the context of the larger discussion about propertization of traditional cultural expressions.
The deadline for submission of 500-word abstracts, outlining papers or works in progress in line with the topics set forth in the full call, has been extended to February 18, 2011.
Details, including the full call for papers and a submission form, are here.
