CML's Aglae Pizzone Awarded Research Grant from NOS-HS

CML/Danish Institute for Advanced Study Assistant Professor Aglae Pizzone has been awarded a Network Grant from the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) (38,300.00 EUR) for the project "Before copyright: pre-modern practices of intellectual property protection". The project includes partnership with the University of Oslo, the University of Uppsala, University of Stockholm, the University of Iceland and the University of Helsinki, across the fields of literature and law studies. 

The network aims to investigate pre-modern notions and strategies of “copyright” and intellectual property within the literary domain. It brings together literary scholars working across different spaces and times and experts on media law and intellectual property law.

Pre-modern forms of protection of intellectual property can teach us valuable lessons about creativity and the way knowledge both creates and exercises authority. They also suggest viable strategies to address contemporary issues such as patent vs. copyright law, access to the public domain, shareability of information, cultural appropriation, corporate/institutional vs. individual authorship. Conversely, the project contends, looking at present conversations about intellectual property law and the challenges raised by electronic literature helps unpack entrenched master narratives about pre-modernity, uncovering overlooked aspects of ancient and medieval textual production.