Paul Tai Yip Ng Memorial Award
Paul Tai Yip Ng Memorial Award 2018: Daniella Silva
"Universities, Corporations, and Nation-states: Structural power relations in the case of Huawei’s Canadian R&D labs" by Daniella Silva
Abstract
Huawei's research and development labs often partner with Canadian universities, providing students with hands-on telecommunications industry training and additional funding the host university. In return, Huawei receives part of any IP created by the R&D labs. This process has sparked a complex and emotionally charged conversation about the role of a foreign-interest company in publicly funded university. In this paper, Huawei’s R&D lab partnerships with Canadian universities are used as a microcosm to illustrate the power relations of university-industry IP partnerships in Canada. Broadly, this case study is analyzed by exploring how the forces of neoliberalism and global IP regulations shape power relations between Huawei, Canadian universities, and nation-states. First, the paper historicizes the development of IP regulations within neoliberalism, highlighting neoliberalism’s conflicting free-market and protectionist ideologies. Next the paper is divided into three sections that explore the specific interests of Huawei, Canadian universities, and nation-states in their quest to control IP.
Congratulations to Ms. Daniella Silva, who won our 2018 Best Graduate Student Paper award. Before coming to SFU to study in the Global Communication MA Double Degree program, Daniella received her BA in international communications with an emphasis in French and a minor in biology from Walla Walla University (WA). Studying under Dr. Enda Brophy in her current MA program, Daniella is thrilled to have the opportunity to study in Beijing next year; she has already begun taking her first baby steps toward speaking Mandarin. Her current research aims to build a profile of whose voices represent China on prominent Canadian news websites. (e.g. who are the journalists, who are the sources). Daniella hopes this profile can act as a valuable reference for future research on gatekeepers and international media representation in Canadian news. The winning paper is timely; Huawei's research and development labs often partner with Canadian universities, providing students with hands-on telecommunications industry training and additional funding to the host university. In return, Huawei receives part of any IP created by the R&D labs. This case study is analyzed by exploring how the forces of neoliberalism and global IP regulations shape power relations between Huawei, Canadian universities, and nation-states.
