Call for Book Chapters: "Law, Society, & Cultural Appropriation"

Vernon Press invites book chapters for a forthcoming edited volume on the subject of "Law, Society, & Cultural Appropriation"

“Cultural Appropriation” has gained significant attention in modern discourses. Cultural appropriation refers to the unauthorized taking and use of intellectual property, cultural expressions, objects, and traditional knowledge from a culture that is not one’s own. Examples of cultural appropriation have been found in fashion, movies, television, music, and even within the domain of social media. The phenomenon of cultural appropriation raises critical legal and ethical questions that continue to be a source of debate, both within academia and in society at large. 

The book entitled “Law, Society, & Cultural Appropriation” will explore the complex legal, ethical, and cultural frameworks that structure this phenomenon. This book explores the intersection of law and society in relation to cultural appropriation from an international perspective. The book will examine the inadequacies of existing legal frameworks by analyzing case studies across various fields such as fashion, music, film, and art. This book will offer a nuanced and interdisciplinary examination of the policies perpetuating cultural appropriation and analyze how various countries approach these occurrences. The ultimate objective of this book is to contribute to the ongoing debates on how to deal with cultural appropriation from a legal perspective. 

This edited volume will bring forth a wide range of scholars from different countries and disciplines in order to provide more comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. While we welcome papers on any aspect of cultural appropriation, we are especially interested in papers exploring one or more of the following topics: 

• Intellectual property and cultural appropriation
• Cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation
• Ethical issues involving cultural appropriation
• Anthropological studies on law, culture, and social structures 
• Changing meanings of culture as applied to appropriation issues
• Consumer protection and cultural appropriation
• Cultural appropriation resistance

We invite scholars from diverse fields such as law, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and others to contribute to this volume.  Final contributions should be approximately 5000-8000 words (inclusive of sources). Please submit an abstract no longer than 500 words to volume editor, Emily Behzadi Cárdenas ebehzadi@cwsl.edu by July 1, 2024.