Shun-Ling Chen

S.J.D. Candidate

schen at sjd.law.harvard.edu

Dissertation

The Haunting Author in the Distribution of Ownership and Authority: An Exploration Through Collaborative Cultural Production

My S.J.D. dissertation examines how authorship is constructed in copyright law (both in the courts and in legislature), and how different constructions of authorship have helped to legitimize the way copyright interests are distributed. In particular, I show how professionalism is ingrained as part of copyright law, and suggest that the distribution of symbolic resources — prestige, credibility, and authority — is connected with the distribution of material resources in cultural production. I look at two kinds of communities that are engaged in collaborative cultural productions — the "wikiborg" and Wikipedia, and the indigenous/marginalized communities with oral traditions and their songs. These two kinds of communities normally do not have any kind of symbolic resources that are often associated with an "author" in copyright law. I inquire how the "wikiborg" and "folk" challenge the copyright system and its imagination of authorship by asserting themselves as viable and credible producers of culture and knowledge.

Fields of Research and Supervisors

Theories and History of Property and Intellectual Property Law with Professor William W. Fisher, Harvard Law School, Overall Faculty Supervisor
Political Economy and Critical Legal Studies with Professor Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Law School
Norms and Science and Technology Studies, with Professor Sheila Jasanoff, Kennedy School of Government

Additional Research Interests

Internet Law
Free Speech
Political and Social Theories
Human Rights
Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Advocacy
Science, Technology and Law

Education

Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2006 – Present, with a PhD Secondary Field in Science, Technology and Society, Harvard University
Harvard Law School, LL.M. 2005
National Taiwan University, Graduate Institute of Law, LL.M. 2002
National Taiwan University, College of Law, LL.B. 1999, with a minor in Political Science

Academic Appointments and Fellowships

Harvard College, Department of Sociology, 2013, Teaching Fellowship
Harvard Law School, 2010, Summer Academic Fellowship
Harvard Law School, 2007-2008, 2010-2011, Graduate Program Fellow, Coordinator of the Visiting Scholar and Visiting Researcher Colloquium
Harvard Law School, 2008-2009, Graduate Program Fellow, Law Teaching Colloquium Coordinator
Academia Sinica, 2007, 2008, Institute of Information Science, Doctoral Student Fellow
Harvard Law School, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, Graduate Program Fellow, LL.M. Advisor
Harvard Law School, 2005-2006, Graduate Program Visiting Researcher
Taiwanese Government Overseas Studies Fellowship, 2005-2007

Representative Publications

Collaborative Authorship: From Folklore to the Wikiborg, 2011(1) University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology and Policy, 131-167
The Wikimedia Foundation and the Self-governing Wikipedia Community – A Dynamic Relationship under Constant Negotiation, in Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader, 351-369, Institute of Network Culture, Netherlands, 2011
Wikipedia: A Republic of Science Democratized, 2010(2) Albany Law Journal of Science and Technology, 249-325
To Surpass or to Conform – What are Public Licenses for?, 2009 (1) University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy
Anonymity, Privacy and Quality – Wikipedia as A Self-governing Community in the Era of Web2.0 (Note)" 2010(2) Albany Law Journal of Science and Technology, 421-432
Freedom as in a Self-sustainable Community: The Free Software Movement and its Challenge to Copyright Law, 337-347, 4(4)Policy Futures in Education (special issue on Intellectual Property: Issues and Ethics), 2006

Additional Information

CV
Languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, German

Last Updated: March 28, 2013