From May 2009 to May 2011, I was a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow with the Centre for Governance of Knowledge and Development, a part of the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) at the Australian National University in Canberra.

From September 2009 to May 2010, I was a Fulbright postdoctoral researcher working as a Visiting Scholar at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University.

I am currently working on a comparative history of international copyright, covering the period from 1886 to 1971.

Most histories of international copyright focus on the more powerful members of the Berne Union, such as Britain, France, and Germany. Canada’s experience with the Berne Convention was very different from those countries. My work attempts to reveal the history of international copyright from the perspective of a smaller country and a net copyright importer.

I began with a review of Canada’s efforts to gain independence from Britain over its copyright legislation in the early twentieth century: although Canada became a signatory to the Berne Convention under Britain in 1886, Canada refused to implement the Berne Convention and unsuccessfully attempted to denounce the treaty. I then examined Canada’s decision in the 1920s to implement the Berne Convention. Thereafter, I focussed on Canada’s role at the major diplomatic conferences to revise the Berne Convention, including the four conferences that took place between 1928 and 1971.