August 29, 2006 — Technology visionary Cory Doctorow has been selected as the first holder of the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Visiting Research Chair, which will be co-hosted by the Viterbi School’s Integrated Media Systems Center.
In his new role, announced this week by the Canadian Fulbright Commission, Doctorow will collaborate with USC faculty and students and deliver guest lectures to the wider community.
“I’m looking forward to being part of the academic discourse on the ways that technology can either liberate or control us,” Doctorow said.
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Cory Doctorow
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“We are excited by this opportunity to work with such a visionary as Cory Doctorow as we continue our research on experiential media for education, journalism and entertainment, ” said Adam Clayton Powell III, director of the Integrated Media Systems Center, an NSF-funded Engineering Research Center within the Viterbi School of Engineering.
Doctorow, who edits the widely read culture and technology blog site "Boing Boing", will divide his appointment at USC between the Viterbi School’s IMSC and the USC Center on Public Diplomacy.
From 2002-2006, Doctorow was the director of European Affairs for Electronic Frontier Foundation, a technology advocacy nonprofit that works to upload liberty in technology law, policy and standards, where he remains a Fellow. He also co-founded the open source P2P technology company OpenCola, which was sold to OpenText in 2003.
Doctorow has worked at the United Nations, with standards bodies, governments, universities and non-profits to lobby for a balanced approach to copyright that didn’t trampel the public’s fundamental rights to privacy, free speech, and due process.
“In an era in which technology is changing the very rules by which people around the world learn about each other, it is critical that public diplomacy be current,” said Joshua S. Fouts, director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. “Cory Doctorow will bring a valuable perspective to the discussion taking place here at USC.”
Under the new Canadian-U.S. Fulbright public diplomacy program, a different prominent Canadian will be a visiting scholar at USC each year.
“The research agenda advanced by this new Fulbright Chair in Public Diplomacy is particularly important in the context of today’s increasingly complex international environment,” said Michael K. Hawes, executive director of the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program.
-- Orli Belman
