The School of Law and the Center on Race and Social Problems will host the fourth biennial conference on race and intellectual property from April 13 to 15.

Race + IP is dedicated to cultivating community and collaboration around the study of race, coloniality and intellectual properties. The inaugural conference was held in 2017 at Boston College, with subsequent conferences being held at NYU Law School in 2019 and Florida A&M University College of Law in 2021.

This year, the organizers have opted to take up the crisis of the moment: the battle over white supremacy. While this battle may be most evident in politics, it is evident in other spaces as well. The conference theme, “The Imperial Scholar” Revisited, seeks to interrogate how and when intellectual property law collides with imperialism, drawing inspiration from a now canonical law review article and its sequel. When Richard Delgado first invoked the phrase “imperial scholar,” he was speaking of practices that animate the academy and perceptions of expertise that form the bases of knowledge production. Delgado and wife Jean Stefancic, both professors at Seattle University School of Law, are keynote speakers for the event.

This year’s conference will be hosted at the Center on Race and Social Problems in the Cathedral of Learning. It is free to attend, with some meals included. Full information about the event, including speakers and schedule and registration, is available at: www.raceipconference.org/2023