Solen Roth’s doctoral research on Northwest Coast giftware is at the interface of the material expressions of intellectual property with both Indigenous and Western cultural heritage values. Her Ph.D. research at the University of British Columbia (UBC) delves into the history of the market of Native Northwest Coast gift products from the 1930s to the present, including the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
Solen’s inquiry touches upon the different ways Northwest Coast designs derived from local Aboriginal cultural property have been the centre of collaboration, negotiation, benefit-sharing, and commoditization processes. Her work also examines how the different legal and economic models according to which these designs are used commercially relate to changing relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in the social, political and cultural realms.
As IPinCH Ph.D. Fellow, she is contributing to writing projects, co-chairing the Commodifications of the Past Working Group, and has contributed to the IPinCH student blog:
Solen has a Licence degree from the Université Pierre Mendes-France in Grenoble, and an M.A. from the Université Louis Lumiere in Lyon where her research centered on the impact of the circulation of non-Western art on cross-cultural relationships. Her current committee consists of UBC’s Dr. Anthony Shelton, Dr. Jennifer Kramer, and Dr. Charlotte Townsend-Gault.
