Keynote Speaker:

• Loriene Roy (Anishinabe), President-Elect, American Library Association, Professor, School of Information, University of Texas

• Betsy Brandt, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Women and Gender Studies, Arizona State University
• Marlene Brant Castellano (Mohawk), Emerita Professor, Native Studies, Trent University, Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics, Canada
• Gavin Clarkson (Choctaw), School of Information, School of Law, Native American Studies, University of Michigan
• T.J. Ferguson, Anthropology, University of Arizona
  
• Amelia Flores (Mohave), Library/Archive Director, Mohave Colorado River Indian Tribes, Linguistics, University of Arizona
• Mary Jo Tippeconic Fox (Comanche), American Indian Studies, University of Arizona
  
• Leslie Francis, Professor and Chair, Philosophy, Alfred C. Emery Professor of Law, University of Utah
• Nicole Hassoun, American Association Fellow, Philosophy, University of Arizona and David Wong, Philosophy, Duke University
  
• Kevin R. Kemper, Journalism, University of Arizona
• Julian E. Kunnie, Professor and Director of Africana Studies, University of Arizona, Chair, Indigenous Religions Section, American Academy of Religions
• James Nason (Comanche), Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus Director of Museology, Emeritus Curator of Pacific and American Ethnology, Burke Museum, University of Washington
  
• George Nicholas, Archaeology, Simon Fraser University
• Rebecca Tsosie (Yaqui), Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar and
  Professor of Law, Executive Director, Indian Legal Program, Arizona State University
• Mary Villegas, Tribal Library Consultant, Arizona State Library
  
• James O. Young, Philosophy, University of Victoria

About this Year’s Roundtable:

In this information age, we tend to focus on the importance of the “free flow” of information. However, there are some ethical barriers to this free flow, such as concerns about privacy, secrecy, and intellectual property. There is a special concern about the free flow of information when that information is “indigenous knowledge” or “cultural property.” Numerous ethical dilemmas arise when indigenous cultural and environmental information is disseminated and used in non-traditional ways.

Indigenous peoples often claim exclusive control over access to and use of information created by them, discovered by them, and about them. This information includes cultural information such as traditional stories, songs, rituals, symbols, etc. It includes environmental information about plants used in traditional medicines, crops, etc. It also includes information about the peoples themselves, their history, sociology, biology, etc. Sometimes this information is embodied in physical things such as ceremonial objects, photographs, plants, or human remains. Claims to control this information and the objects that carry it may come in conflict with the scholarly, scientific, artistic, or commercial interests of others in accessing and using this information.   

This will be the first conference to bring together researchers in Philosophy, Law, Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Public Policy, American Indian Studies, and Library and Information Science to discuss the ethical dimensions of Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Property. The conference will provide an impetus to scholars to develop a better understanding of, and new theoretical approaches to, these issues. This conference will also bring needed attention to these issues among practicing information professionals, who play an important role as information stewards.

The conference will address such issues as:

About the Roundtable:

We live in an “information society.” Information and new information technologies have become essential to our social, economic, and political interactions. The roundtable brings together researchers from several different disciplines (philosophy, information science, communications, public administration, anthropology, law, etc.) to discuss the ethical issues surrounding access to information, information privacy, intellectual property, intellectual freedom, and censorship.

The first Information Ethics Roundtable in 2003 grew out of a debate in Library Quarterly between Doyle and Fricke-Mathiesen-Fallis on the issue of Censorship and Access to Information.  Subsequent topics have included Privacy and Intellectual Property.  Keynote speakers in previous years have included Michael Brown, noted author of Who Owns Native Culture?, Siva Vaidhyanathan, noted author of Copyrights and Copywrongs, and Alasdair Roberts, noted author of Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age.

Organization of this Year’s Roundtable:

This conference has been organized in consultation with The Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy, the Research Group on the History and Philosophy of Information Access, and the School of Information Resources and Library Science. It is supported by funds from the Morris K. Udall Foundation.  In addition, ArizonaNativeNet has arranged to have the talks archived for future viewing, the Arizona Library Association is hosting the keynote reception, and funding from IKON is supporting the LSO Graduate Student Poster Presentation.

Artwork by John Hunter.  Used by permission of the artist.

The organizers of the roundtable are Kay Mathiesen (Program Chair), Tony Doyle, Don Fallis, Ally Krebs, Robert Merideth, and Catherine Womack. For further information about the roundtable, contact the organizers or write to:

Information Ethics Roundtable
Attn: Kay Mathiesen
School of Information Resources and Library Science
University of Arizona
1515 East First Street
Tucson, AZ 85719

Links: