February 13, 2013
Associate Professor Elizabeth Townsend Gard has been appointed by Provost Michael Bernstein as the Jill and Avram A. Glazer Professor of Social Entrepreneurship. Professor Townsend Gard is one of three faculty members selected campus-wide to hold newly inaugurated social entrepreneurship professorships as part of a major Tulane University initiative to promote social change through academic innovation. Holders of these endowed professorships are expected to teach and collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to bring academic expertise and innovation to bear in promoting new models of social change.
Among her other research, Professor Townsend-Gard, Co-Director of the Tulane Center for Intellectual Property Law and Culture, is pioneering the creation of new software technology that promises to permit users of creative works to ascertain readily whether the works have passed into the public domain or retain copyright protection under the laws of any nation. Her published scholarship was recently cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in a major case defining the boundaries of copyright protection.
Dean David Meyer described Professor Townsend Gard's appointment as "a well-deserved recognition of her accomplishments and promise in driving social change through creative research."
"Elizabeth's creative and collaborative spirit, evident in her inventive work on the Durationator project and in helping found the Law School's Center for Intellectual Property Law and Culture, makes her perfectly fitted to represent the University's important new social entrepreneurship initiative," Meyer said.