Two UO professors have been appointed Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics Resident Scholars for 2013-14.

Both professors – Eric Priest and Colin Koopman – are active in media and Internet studies, and will participate in the Wayne Morse Center’s upcoming theme of inquiry, Media and Democracy. From fall 2013 through spring 2015, the Morse Center will examine evolving changes in contemporary media as well as the dramatic cultural, political and legal transitions influenced by new media.

Priest will be the Morse Center Resident Scholar in Law. He is an assistant professor of law specializing in intellectual property law and responses to new technology. During his Morse Center residency, he will continue research on his book, “Copyright, Media and Democracy in China,” which examines the issue of copyright law having the potential to promote a more independent media in China.

Priest will co-teach a fall 2013 class, “Advanced Topics in Intellectual Property Law” with 2013 Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics William “Terry” Fisher.

Koopman will be the Morse Center Resident Scholar in Philosophy. He is an assistant professor in philosophy and specializes in political theory with a focus on the history and future of the politics of information. He will work on his third book, “Infopolitics: Transformations of Public and Private,” which explores how “infopolitics” is radically reshaping publicity and privacy through the Internet and other socio-technologies.

Koopman will assist the Wayne Morse Center in a January 2014 symposium on Information, Technology and Social Progess. He will also help plan the visit of Wendy Hui Kyong Chun of Brown University. Chun will visit the UO in winter 2015 as the Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics. 

More information is available on the Wayne Morse Center’s website.

- by Aria Seligmann, UO Office of Strategic Communications