Rosemary J. Coombe

Rosemary J. Coombe's work addresses the cultural, political, and social implications of intellectual property laws.

She has recently co-edited (with Darren Wershler and Martin Zeilinger) a volume on the intersections between Canadian copyright law, digital technologies, and practices of dynamic fair dealing: Dynamic Fair Dealing: Creating Canadian Culture Online (University of Toronto Press, 2014).

Recent publications:

Coombe, R. (2020). The Demonic Place of the “Not There”: Trademark Rumors in the Postindustrial Imaginary. In A. Gupta & J. Ferguson (Eds.), Culture, Power, Place (Vol. 1–Book, Section, pp. 249–274). Duke University Press.

Coombe, R. J. (2006). The Cultural Life of Things: Anthropological Approaches to Law and Society in Conditions of Globalization. In A. George (Ed.), Globalization and Intellectual Property (1st ed., Vol. 1–Book, Section, pp. 533–577). Routledge.

Coombe, R. J. (2016). The knowledge economy and its cultures: Neoliberal technologies and Latin American reterritorializations. HAU Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 6(3), 247–275.

Coombe, R. J. (2017). Frontiers of cultural property in the global south. In J. Anderson & H. Geismar (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Cultural Property (1st ed., Vol. 1–Book, Section, pp. 373–400). Routledge.

Coombe, R. J. (2017). Managing Cultural Heritage as Neoliberal Governmentality. In Göttingen University Press (Vol. 1–Book, Section). Göttingen University Press.

Coombe, R. J. (2018). Intellectual Property. The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Generic, 1–11.

Coombe, R. J. (2019). Cultural Agencies: The Legal Construction of Community Subjects and Their Properties. In M. Biagioli, P. Jaszi, & M. Woodmansee (Eds.), Making and Unmaking Intellectual Property (Vol. 1–Book, Section, pp. 79–98). University of Chicago Press.

Coombe, R. J., & Aylwin, N. (2018). The Evolution of Cultural Heritage Ethics via Human Rights Norms. In Dynamic Fair Dealing (Vol. 1–Book, Section, pp. 201–212). University of Toronto Press.

Coombe, R. J., & Malik, S. A. (2018). Transforming the Work of Geographical Indications to Decolonize Racialized Labor and Support Agroecology. Journal Article.

Coombe, R. J., Wershler-Henry, D. S., & Zeilinger, M. (2014). Dynamic fair dealing: Creating Canadian culture online. University of Toronto Press.  

Sample of supervised ComCult projects:

2018 - Amy Smith; Major Research Paper: Fostering Economic Transformation Through The Second Hand Economy

2015 - Abigail Henry; Thesis: Cultural Heritage and Representation in Jamaica: Broaching the Digital Age

2012 - Yacine Dottridge; Major Research Paper: Creative Exploitation: Intellectual Property as a Form of Neoliberal Cultural Policy

2009 - Ren Bucholz; Thesis: Laws of air and ether: Copyright, technology standards, and competition

2006 - Nicole Aylwin; Major Research Paper: Traditional Medicinal Knowledge, Recognition And Regulation

2003 - Danielle D'Souza; Major Research Paper: Creativity, Copyright and Coercion: Intellectual Property Rights in Nigeria

2002 - Maryann Martin; Thesis: The benefit's place in cultural-political imaginings