Stanford University's John Willinsky--educator, activist for open access and author--will speak on "The Intellectual Properties of Learning," April 29 at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The luncheon event is free and open to all and will run noon to 1:30 p.m., in Richmond Salons, VCU Student Commons. Please register.

This talk is part of the Sanger Series of lectures that address ethical issues and trends that affect research, scholarship and creative expression. A focus of the intellectual series will be on ethics and intellectual property in the digital age. The VCU Office of Research and VCU Libraries organize the series. 

The Sanger Series, launched this year, is designed to "initiate a new and much anticipated conversation across the university about ethics, publishing and scholarly expression at VCU,” said University Librarian John E. Ulmschneider. “We are excited to bring such nationally prominent speakers to VCU. They will help us engage with the critical issues affecting scholarly discourse as the university accelerates its transformation into a premiere urban research university.”

Faculty are invited to bring classes as long as space allows.  

Funding for the lecture series is from The Sanger Fund.

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The Speaker: John Willinsky is an educator, activist for open access and award-winning author. He is Khosla Family Professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, a fellow at the Royal Society of Canada and director of the University of British Columbia Public Knowledge Project, the aim of which is to assist in the improvement of quality and accessibility of academic research. His books include The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship (MIT Press, 2006), If Only We Knew: Increasing the Public Value of Social Science Research (Routledge, 2000) and Technologies of Knowing (Beacon Press, 1999).

The Topic: From medieval times to Thomas Jefferson to today’s digital revolution, scholarship and research have given rise to intellectual property that is different in fundamental ways from that of writers and entertainers such as Alice Munro or Justin Bieber. What distinguishes the intellectual properties involved in learning? How does the work of the academy earn and retain its value? The intellectual properties of learning are now taking on greater legal prominence, through various open access initiatives, with profound implications for what, where, and how we teach, as well as the ways in which we publish. Come learn more about what promises to be the great digital opening of the university to the world at large.