CREATe Public Lecture Series: Autumn 2023

Copyright and Cartography: History, Law and the Circulation of Geographical Knowledge

Time and date: 5.30pm - 7pm UK time, Wednesday 1st November 2023.

Location: In person event, held at the Humanity Lecture Theatre, University of Glasgow.

Speaker: Isabella Alexander, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Chair: Marta Iljadica, CREATe, University of Glasgow.

Commentator: Elena Cooper, CREATe, University of Glasgow.

Abstract: Abstract: In this lecture, Isabella Alexander will present aspects of her recent open access book Copyright and Cartography (Bloomsbury, 2023) that explores the intertwined histories of mapmaking and copyright law in Britain from the early modern period up to the outbreak of World War I, focussing chiefly on the 18th and 19th centuries. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, and making extensive use of the archival record, this is the first historical account of the relationship between maps and copyright. As such, it examines how the emergence and development of copyright law affected mapmakers and the map trade, and how the application of copyright law to the field of mapmaking affected the development of copyright doctrine. Its exploration casts new light on the circulation of geographical knowledge, different cultures of authorship and creativity, and connections between copyright law, print culture, technology, and society.

Biography: Isabella Alexander is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, where she teaches and researches in intellectual property law and legal history. She is the author of Copyright and the Public Interest in the Nineteenth Century (Hart, 2018) and Copyright and Cartography: History, Law, and the Circulation of Geographical Knowledge. She is also the Chief Investigator on Australian Research Council Discovery Project Hacking Copyright in the 21st Century: Art, Law, History and Technology.