Duke University Press Log

Study in JHPPL Questions Benefits of Price Protection for Drug Companies

As Congress considers new measures that would provide twelve to fourteen years of price protection beyond patent rights for biological drugs, a new study in the current issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law documents how the European Union granted pharmaceutical companies similar protections without clear evidence that they would benefit patients or increase innovation.

The proposed United States legislation on data exclusivity prohibits generic competitors from using the data gathered to test a drug’s safety and efficacy for the public as part of their application to the Food and Drug Administration.

“Data exclusivity requires buyers to pay prices protected from normal competition,” says Sandra Adamini, the lead author of the study. “It might even apply if the patent has expired.” Drug companies argue that data exclusivity is needed beyond twenty-year patent protection in order to earn back large investments in research and to provide an incentive for more innovation.

Author Events Tomorrow

Two great author events happening here at Duke tomorrow. At noon, sit down at your computer for a live online chat with Negar Mottahedeh, author of Displaced Allegories: Post-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema. She'll be talking about political events in Iran, cinema, and about how she uses Twitter to teach and disseminate her work (she tweets @negaratduke). To ask a question of Mottahedeh in advance or during the session, send an email to live@duke.edu, post a comment on the Duke University Live Ustream page on Facebook or tweet with the tag #dukelive.

Later in the afternoon, head over to Perkins Library for a roundtable on the work of Ariel Dorfman. Five scholars who have studied the work Duke's famed playwight/poet/novelist/essayist/activist Ariel Dorfman will discuss the many aspects of his work, from literature to human rights. One of them is Sophia McClennen, who has just published the first book-length study of Dorfman, Ariel Dorfman: An Aesthetics of Hope. We are also pleased to be bringing The Empire's Old Clothes, one of Dorfman's classic works of cultural criticism, back into print. A book signing will follow the roundtable.

Duke Authors on Haiti Earthquake

 Two Duke authors with expertise on Haiti and the Caribbean respond to the devastating earthquake. Marc Becker, author of Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador’s Modern Indigenous Movements, visited Haiti just a few days before the quake. Writing for History News Network, he locates Haiti's problems in the international ostracism it experienced after independence. "The solution to Haiti's problems," he writes, "is to allow the country to develop its own economy and political system without constant outside intervention.  Otherwise, Haiti's next natural calamity will be worse than this one, and the country will continue to sink deeper into poverty, inequality, and social exclusion." Speaking to CNN.com, Allen Wells, author of Tropical Zion: General Trujillo, FDR, and the Jews of Sosúa, contrasts Haiti's nearly nonexistent tourism industry with the Dominican Republic, where tourism booms. Quoted on Bowdoin College's news site, Wells is hopeful: "The freedom the slaves achieved in Haiti signaled the birth of the modern world. The Haitian people should not be underestimated. They are amazingly resilient. They have overcome so much and they will, with the help of the international community, overcome this."

New Reviews of Dunham and Zaborowska

Two nice new reviews came in today. S. Ann Dunham's Surviving against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia is reviewed in Asia Times. Reviewer Dinesh Sharma interviews many people who knew Dunham and concludes that her son, President Barack Obama, was much influenced by her. The role of peacemaker is "in his DNA," he writes.  "Part and parcel of an inheritance that harkens back to his mother's early socialization, the role of the peacemaker is a product of a transmuted, intergenerational dream of changing the world one village at a time. His mother's unfinished dreams, albeit tenuously, still bind the elements of Obama's foreign and domestic policies with his political identity."

Also garnering a thoughtful review is Magdalena Zaborowska's James Baldwin's Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile. Writing in the Gay and Lesbian Review/Worldwide, James Polchin says Zaborowska's book "situates Baldwin within a complicated constellation of sexual, racial, and national identities, and offers a subtle analysis of Baldwin that moves beyond simple classifications." He says the book "will make you want to reread Another Country and his later works with a new context of understanding."

Kauanui on the Akaka Bill

J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, author of Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity, has long been an activist on behalf of Hawaiian sovereignty. She has written extensively on the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, better known as the Akaka bill. The bill was first introduced by Senator Daniel Akaka in 2000 and an amended version recently passed through committee in the House. In this editorial in Indian Country Today, Kauanui talks about some of the important changes in the new version of the bill.

Resources on Haitian History

If you're looking to learn more about Haiti's history in the wake of Tuesday's horrific earthquake, you should check out Sybille Fischer's multiple-award-winning Modernity Disavowed: Haiti and the Cultures of Slavery in the Age of Revolution. Fischer sees the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) as crucial to understanding Western modernity. Here's a great interview with Fischer in Bomb Magazine. When asked about Haiti's modern situation, she believes "Haitian history is characterized by a conflict that originates with the revolution," and that we must also take into account Haiti's isolation from the rest of the world. To learn more about Haiti's colonial past, consider Doris L. Garaway's The Libertine Colony: Creolization in the Early French Caribbean, a literary study which examines how French colonial writers characterized the Caribbean as a space of spiritual, social, and moral depravity. And if you're looking for expert opinion on modern Haiti, please contact Laurent Dubois, Duke professor of romance studies and history, and member of DUP's editorial board.

Duke Authors at American Historical Association Annual Meeting

We enjoyed seeing many of our authors, new and old, at the American Historical Association annual meeting last week in San Diego, CA. Here are some photos of our booth and a few of our authors.

 

View of our booth.

Pablo Piccato, author of The Tyranny of Opinion: Honor in the Construction of the Mexican Public Sphere

Erick D. Langer, author of Expecting Pears from an Elm Tree: Franciscan Missions on the Chiriguano Frontier in the Heart of South America, 1830-1949

Federico Finchelstein, author of Transatlantic Fascism: Ideology, Violence, and the Sacred in Argentina and Italy, 1919-1945

Gabriela Soto Laveaga, author of Jungle Laboratories: Mexican Peasants, National Projects, and the Making of the Pill

Nara B. Milanich, author of Children of Fate: Childhood, Class, and the State in Chile, 1850-1930

Edward Wright-Rios, author of Revolutions in Mexican Catholicism: Reform and Revelation in Oaxaca, 1887-1934

Thanks to our Publicity & Marketing Assistant, Amanda E. Sharp, for taking these photos!

Pedagogy editor on the future of English Studies

Pedagogy founding co-editor Jennifer L. Holberg on MLA, the future of English Studies, and the tenth anniversary issue of the journal--

After what William Pannapacker in the Chronicle of Higher Education (27 December 2009) called “the worst MLA ever,” where does English studies go from here?  As usual, MLA was full of talk and tweets about reforms, big and small.  But the question remains: does the profession have the moral courage to begin to fundamentally rethink the ways in which our discipline operates, at every level from graduate student and contingent colleagues to the fullest of professors?  Are we ready to examine and change, where necessary, the reward structure--both who gets rewarded and for what?  Perhaps most importantly, are we prepared to reconsider what “our work” really is?

American Dialect Society Announces Words of the Year, Decade

Last week at its annual meeting, the American Dialect Society voted on the words of the year and decade. The vote is much anticipated by word-lovers. The society named "tweet" the word of the year. Speaking to NPR's Lianne Hansen, Grant Barrett, chair of the society's new word committee, said, "A lot of people felt that this was the year of Twitter. Some people were even speaking of it as becoming so core to the Internet that it's like a public utility. It just becomes invisible and people build their Web sites and their applications on top of it." The society voted "google" word of the decade. Barrett had thought it might be blog, but "the argument from the floor from one of our members was that a lot of people blog, millions of people blog, but everybody googles, young and old." Duke University Press publishes American Speech, the journal of the American Dialect Society. If you're interested in new, or newly popular words, you can read the feature "Among the New Words" in the journal.

Herald-Sun Covers Reynolds Smith's Retirement

The Durham Herald-Sun reports that "Monday felt strange for J. Reynolds Smith," and we at the Press can agree that our first week without our beloved Executive Editor felt strange for us, too. Smith retired at the end of 2009. Reporter Neil Offen describes how Smith helped transform Duke University Press over his 34 years here: "The fusty old press has become a major intellectual force and on the cutting edge of academic scholarship." Editorial Director Ken Wissoker says, "I don't think we would be the press we are today if not for Reynolds' contributions. He really took the lead in getting the press to match the changes that were happening at Duke, as it grew into a world-class, leading-edge institution." We all wish Reynolds Smith the best as he undertakes his own writing projects.