Commodifying Life: U.S. State Strategy and Intellectual Property Rights

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Shelley Hurt is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Manager of the Policy Research Shop at the Rockefeller Center. Hurt received her BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley and her MA and PhD degrees in Political Science from the New School for Social Research (PhD expected 2008). Her dissertation, "Science, Power, and the State: U.S. Foreign Policy, Intellectual Property Law, and the Origins of Agricultural Biotechnology, 1969-1994" analyzed extensive archival material to demonstrate that the origins of the TRIPS agreement of the World Trade Organization emerged in the late 1960s as a consequence of the biological revolution. Hurt's scholarship aims to bring the study of science and technology policy back into the center of political science debates. Hurt's research was awarded the 2007 Carl Beck Award from the International Studies Association and she has presented her research at the U.S. Department of State. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the Miller Center of Public Affairs and the New School for Social Research. Before coming to Dartmouth College, she taught Political Science at Vassar College as a Visiting Instructor for two years.