Senior Lecturer
Senior Research Fellow
Overview
Dr. Allison Fish is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research lies at the intersections of law, socio-cultural anthropology, and science and technology studies. She has completed higher degree studies in law (JD), public administration (MPA), and anthropology (PhD). Prior to joining UQ Dr. Fish was an assistant professor in the School of Informatics & Computing at Indiana University.
The three questions that have directed much of her recent work are: What are the legal forms, technological infrastructures, and cultural logics that shape information/knowledge management practices? How do law and technology function together to mediate access? And How is accessibility increasingly framed as a fundamental human right and critical pathway to social enfranchisement?
To date, the bulk of her research has addressed the application of intellectual property law to the regulation of various domains including; international markets for South Asian classical health systems, the development of digital archives and databases designed to function as defensive publications against future patents, the impact of open access on scholarly communication practices, and licensing and attribution practices in open source software communities.
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine
Publications
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Conference Publication: Understanding the knowledge gap experienced by U.S. safety net patients in teleretinal screening
George, Sheba M., Hayes, Erin Moran, Fish, Allison, Daskovich, Lauren Patty and Ogunyemi, Omolola I. (2016). Understanding the knowledge gap experienced by U.S. safety net patients in teleretinal screening. AMIA 2016 Annual Symposium, Chicago, IL, 12-16 Nov 2016. Bethesda, MD United States: American Medical Informatics Association.
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Journal Article: The place of ‘culture’ in the Access to Knowledge movement: comparing Creative Commons and yogic theories of knowledge transfer
Fish, Allison (2014). The place of ‘culture’ in the Access to Knowledge movement: comparing Creative Commons and yogic theories of knowledge transfer. Anthropology Today, 30 (5), 7-10. doi: 10.1111/1467-8322.12130
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Journal Article: Authorizing yoga: the pragmatics of cultural stewardship in the digital era
Fish, Allison (2014). Authorizing yoga: the pragmatics of cultural stewardship in the digital era. East Asian Science, Technology, and Society, 8 (4), 439-460. doi: 10.1215/18752160-2800143
Grants
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ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology
(2023–2029) ARC Centres of Excellence
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The past, present and future of Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge
(2023–2026) ARC Discovery Indigenous
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ARC Training Centre for Uniquely Australian Foods
(2019–2024) ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centres
Supervision
-
Managing the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribes of India
Doctor Philosophy
-
Accommodating Computer Generated Work in the Indonesian Copyright Act: A Comparative Study with Australia Copyright Law
Doctor Philosophy
-
The Role of the law in the circulation of the Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana)
Doctor Philosophy
Available Projects
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Between Production and Consumption: Tracing the Techno-Legal Lives of Commodities Moving Through International Commerce
Since 2001 there has been an increasing concern with national security in many countries throughout the world, including both Australia and the United States. This concern has led to significant legal changes supporting an intensified monitoring of both land and sea borders in an attempt to ensure that the legitimate international flows of goods and people take place at geographically constrained border ports-of-entry. In this sense, the border port-of-entry has become an increasingly narrow choke-point through which commodities and people must pass if they are to move between nation-states. During this same time period, however, the actual means of surveillance at border ports-of-entry has undergone a rapid transformation; expanding from face-to-face and paper-based mediums to include a complex assemblage of new and old technologies (e.g., x-rays, mirrors, biometric scans, chemical trace screenings, and internet-based tracking platforms). The purpose of this expansion is to eventually create no-stop border ports-of-entry that seamlessly identifies, tracks, and ensures only legitimate commodities and people enter into the nation-state at these points. In international commerce, accelerated passage through border ports is highly desirable as a cost saving mechanism that is of particular benefit for perishable commodities subject to spoilage (e.g., agricultural products, seafood, etc.). This project employs a comparative ethnographic approach aimed at elucidating how this tension, between national security and market interests, is navigated in the design and adoption of the new technologies that are being selected and tested at three specific ports-of-entry (Long Beach, Ambos Nogales, and Brisbane). A comparative ethnographic project of these sites will enhance understanding regarding how two nation-states, similarly situated in terms of socioeconomic and political standing, are using law and technology to strike a balance vis-a-vis competing interests.
-
Laying Claim to Yoga: Intellectual Property, Cultural Rights, and the Digital Archive in India
This project explores recent developments surrounding a key legal mechanism impacting access to and circulation of valuable knowledge – namely, intellectual and cultural property rights (IPRs). The project addresses the use of IPRs in the globalization and commodification of South Asian traditional health/spiritual systems conjoined in yoga and the ramifications this has for local and international markets, as well as global perceptions for South Asia as a site of creativity and innovation. The project also looks at the role that digital technologies play in protecting traditional knowledge and the impact that this defensive publication and anti-patenting strategy has on local and cultural practices. A key part of the project is a critical discussion of the way that people think about how law and technology interact with one another and how law changes over time to accommodate new objects and shifting attitudes. Specifically, this work challenges the commonly held idea that techno-scientific innovations constantly outpace legal change. I argue that this deterministic account is flawed and problematically frames law as merely a reflective and reactive mechanism that is constantly struggling behind in the wake of socio-technical change. The project is based on ethnographic fieldwork that took place over 24 months in India, California, Hong Kong, and Switzerland.
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The Impact of Computational Technologies on the Practice of Law and the Legal Profession
This project explores the impact of computational technologies on the practice of law and the legal profession in the United States and Australia. Compared to other fields, such as finance, the legal profession is a relatively late adopter of new technologies, however, this is beginning to rapidly change. This project focuses on understanding the larger socio-technical environment that legal actors are facing and does so by taking a holistic approach that investigates how computational systems, composed of numerous technologies, are arranged and coordinated, as well as which tools become embedded into everyday legal work. The project is based on the idea that incorporating new technologies into social settings, including legal work spaces, is not a seamless or straightforward process and often requires significant changes and these changes must be understood in context.
Publications
Featured Publications
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Understanding the knowledge gap experienced by U.S. safety net patients in teleretinal screening
George, Sheba M., Hayes, Erin Moran, Fish, Allison, Daskovich, Lauren Patty and Ogunyemi, Omolola I. (2016). Understanding the knowledge gap experienced by U.S. safety net patients in teleretinal screening. AMIA 2016 Annual Symposium, Chicago, IL, 12-16 Nov 2016. Bethesda, MD United States: American Medical Informatics Association.
-
Fish, Allison (2014). The place of ‘culture’ in the Access to Knowledge movement: comparing Creative Commons and yogic theories of knowledge transfer. Anthropology Today, 30 (5), 7-10. doi: 10.1111/1467-8322.12130
-
Authorizing yoga: the pragmatics of cultural stewardship in the digital era
Fish, Allison (2014). Authorizing yoga: the pragmatics of cultural stewardship in the digital era. East Asian Science, Technology, and Society, 8 (4), 439-460. doi: 10.1215/18752160-2800143
Book Chapter
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Fish, Allison (2019). A border seeping in all directions: technologies of separation along the U.S.-Mexico border in Ambos Nogales. Information, technology and control in a changing world: understanding power structures in the 21st century. (pp. 247-272) edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne and Natasha Tusikov. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-14540-8_12
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Ethnographic explorations of intellectual property claims to yoga: a series of unexpected events
Fish, Allison E. (2016). Ethnographic explorations of intellectual property claims to yoga: a series of unexpected events. Applied anthropology: unexpected spaces, topics, and methods. (pp. 136-150) edited by Sheena Nahm and Cortney Hughes Rinker. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315690742-10
Journal Article
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Software and the Scientist: Coding and Citation Practices in Geodynamics
Hwang, Lorraine, Fish, Allison, Soito, Laura, Smith, MacKenzie and Kellogg, Louise H. (2017). Software and the Scientist: Coding and Citation Practices in Geodynamics. Earth and Space Science, 4 (11), 670-680. doi: 10.1002/2016EA000225
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Tenopir, Carol, Dalton, Elizabeth D., Christian, Lisa, Jones, Misty K., McCabe, Mark, Smith, McCabe and Fish, Allison (2017). Imagining a gold open access future: attitudes, behaviors, and funding scenarios among authors of academic scholarship. College and Research Libraries, 78 (6), 824-843. doi: 10.5860/crl.78.6.824
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Tenopir, Carol, Dalton, Elizabeth, Fish, Allison, Christian, Lisa, Jones, Misty and Smith, MacKenzie (2016). What motivates authors of scholarly articles? The importance of journal attributes and potential audience on publication choice. Publications, 4 (3) 22, 22. doi: 10.3390/publications4030022
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Understanding the knowledge gap experienced by U.S. safety net patients in teleretinal screening
George, Sheba M., Hayes, Erin Moran, Fish, Allison, Daskivich, Lauren Patty and Ogunyemi, Omolola I. (2016). Understanding the knowledge gap experienced by U.S. safety net patients in teleretinal screening. AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings Archive, 2016, 590-599.
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Fish, Allison (2014). The place of ‘culture’ in the Access to Knowledge movement: comparing Creative Commons and yogic theories of knowledge transfer. Anthropology Today, 30 (5), 7-10. doi: 10.1111/1467-8322.12130
-
Authorizing yoga: the pragmatics of cultural stewardship in the digital era
Fish, Allison (2014). Authorizing yoga: the pragmatics of cultural stewardship in the digital era. East Asian Science, Technology, and Society, 8 (4), 439-460. doi: 10.1215/18752160-2800143
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Factors shaping effective utilization of health information technology in the safety-net setting
George, Sheba, Garth, Belinda, Fish, Allison and Baker, Richard (2013). Factors shaping effective utilization of health information technology in the safety-net setting. Health Informatics Journal, 19 (3), 183-197. doi: 10.1177/1460458212464584
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Community Building at American Anthropologist
Fish, Allison E. (2011). Community Building at American Anthropologist. American Anthropologist, 113 (1), 4-4. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01302.x
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Ogunyemi, Omolola, Terrien, Elizabeth, Eccles, Alicia, Patty, Lauren, George, Sheba, Fish, Allison, Teklehaimanot, Senait, Ilapakurthi, Ramarao, Aimiuwu, Otaren and Baker, Richard (2011). Teleretinal screening for diabetic retinopathy in six Los Angeles urban safety-net clinics: initial findings. AMIA Annual Symposium proceedings, 2011, 1027-1035.
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Workflow concerns and workarounds of readers in an urban safety net teleretinal screening study
Fish, Allison, George, Sheba, Terrien, Elizabeth, Eccles, Alicia, Baker, Richard and Ogunyemi, Omolola (2011). Workflow concerns and workarounds of readers in an urban safety net teleretinal screening study. AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings, 2011, 417-426.
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The commodification and exchange of knowledge in the case of transnational yoga
Fish, Allison (2006). The commodification and exchange of knowledge in the case of transnational yoga. The International Journal of Cultural Property, 13 (2), 189-206. doi: 10.1017/S0940739106060127
Conference Publication
-
Understanding the knowledge gap experienced by U.S. safety net patients in teleretinal screening
George, Sheba M., Hayes, Erin Moran, Fish, Allison, Daskovich, Lauren Patty and Ogunyemi, Omolola I. (2016). Understanding the knowledge gap experienced by U.S. safety net patients in teleretinal screening. AMIA 2016 Annual Symposium, Chicago, IL, 12-16 Nov 2016. Bethesda, MD United States: American Medical Informatics Association.
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Cultural and technological issues and solutions for geodynamics software citation
Heien, E. M., Hwang, L., Fish, A., Smith, M., Dumit, J. and Kellogg, L. (2014). Cultural and technological issues and solutions for geodynamics software citation. American Geosciences Union Fall Meeting, United States, Dec 2014.
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George, Sheba, Moran, Erin, Fish, Allison and Ogunyemi, Lola (2013). Understanding the digital divide in the clinical setting: the technology knowledge gap experienced by US safety net patients during teleretinal screening. 14th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics, MEDINFO 2013, Copenhagen, Denmark, 20 - 23 August 2013. Amsterdam, Netherlands: I O S Press. doi: 10.3233/978-1-61499-289-9-946
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Ogunyemi, Omolola, Terrien, Elizabeth, Eccles, Alicia, Patty, Lauren, George, Sheba, Fish, Allison, Tekleheimanot, Senait, Ilapakurthi, Ramarao, Aimiuwu, Otaren and Baker, Richard (2011). Teleretinal screening for diabetic retinopathy in six Los Angeles urban safety-net clinics: initial findings. Conference Proceedings for the American Medical Informatics Association, Washington, DC, United States, 22 - 26 October 2011. Bethesda, MD, United States: American Medical Informatics Association.
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Workflow concerns and workarounds of readers in an urban safety net teleretinal screening study
Fish, Allison, George, Sheba, Terrein, Elizabeth, Eccles, Alicia, Baker, Richard and Ogunyemi, Omolola (2011). Workflow concerns and workarounds of readers in an urban safety net teleretinal screening study. Conference Proceedings for the Annual Meeting of the American Medical Informatics Association, Washington, DC, United States, 22 - 26 October 2011. Bethesda, MD, United States: American Medical Informatics Association.
Other Outputs
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Systems & design thinking: online module as part of the Internet Society’s Mid-Career Fellowship
Maher, Ray, Fish, Allison and Yarnold, Jennifer (2022). Systems & design thinking: online module as part of the Internet Society’s Mid-Career Fellowship. Geneva, Switzerland: The Internet Society.
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Intellectual property and related legal issues facing the Australian Native Food Industry
Adhikari, Kamalesh, Bosse, Jocelyn, Fish, Allison and Sherman, Brad (2018). Intellectual property and related legal issues facing the Australian Native Food Industry. AgriFutures Australia Publication Wagga Wagga NSW Australia: AgriFutures Australia.
Grants (Administered at UQ)
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ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology
(2023–2029) ARC Centres of Excellence
-
The past, present and future of Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge
(2023–2026) ARC Discovery Indigenous
-
ARC Training Centre for Uniquely Australian Foods
(2019–2024) ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centres
-
Improving the efficiency of Kakadu Plum value chains to grow a robust and sustainable industry
(2019–2022) CRC for Developing Northern Australia
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CSIRO-UQ Collaboration on Responsible Innovation
(2018–2024) CSIRO
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The impact of computational technologies on the practice of law and the legal profession
(2018–2019) UQ Early Career Researcher
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The legal and regulatory challenges facing new and emerging Australian native foods industries
(2018) Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation
PhD and MPhil Supervision
Current Supervision
-
Managing the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribes of India
Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
-
Accommodating Computer Generated Work in the Indonesian Copyright Act: A Comparative Study with Australia Copyright Law
Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
-
The Role of the law in the circulation of the Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana)
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
-
SEPs in Biotechnology Spectrum
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
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The repatriation of plant products: what should be repatriated and how?
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
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Informal and formal justice for rape: Digital "court" and court trials in Australia
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
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The Rise of Brand Name Fruit: Apples and Signification in Australia
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
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Using marks and designations to build and sustain local food and agriculture
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Possible Research Projects
Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.
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Between Production and Consumption: Tracing the Techno-Legal Lives of Commodities Moving Through International Commerce
Since 2001 there has been an increasing concern with national security in many countries throughout the world, including both Australia and the United States. This concern has led to significant legal changes supporting an intensified monitoring of both land and sea borders in an attempt to ensure that the legitimate international flows of goods and people take place at geographically constrained border ports-of-entry. In this sense, the border port-of-entry has become an increasingly narrow choke-point through which commodities and people must pass if they are to move between nation-states. During this same time period, however, the actual means of surveillance at border ports-of-entry has undergone a rapid transformation; expanding from face-to-face and paper-based mediums to include a complex assemblage of new and old technologies (e.g., x-rays, mirrors, biometric scans, chemical trace screenings, and internet-based tracking platforms). The purpose of this expansion is to eventually create no-stop border ports-of-entry that seamlessly identifies, tracks, and ensures only legitimate commodities and people enter into the nation-state at these points. In international commerce, accelerated passage through border ports is highly desirable as a cost saving mechanism that is of particular benefit for perishable commodities subject to spoilage (e.g., agricultural products, seafood, etc.). This project employs a comparative ethnographic approach aimed at elucidating how this tension, between national security and market interests, is navigated in the design and adoption of the new technologies that are being selected and tested at three specific ports-of-entry (Long Beach, Ambos Nogales, and Brisbane). A comparative ethnographic project of these sites will enhance understanding regarding how two nation-states, similarly situated in terms of socioeconomic and political standing, are using law and technology to strike a balance vis-a-vis competing interests.
-
Laying Claim to Yoga: Intellectual Property, Cultural Rights, and the Digital Archive in India
This project explores recent developments surrounding a key legal mechanism impacting access to and circulation of valuable knowledge – namely, intellectual and cultural property rights (IPRs). The project addresses the use of IPRs in the globalization and commodification of South Asian traditional health/spiritual systems conjoined in yoga and the ramifications this has for local and international markets, as well as global perceptions for South Asia as a site of creativity and innovation. The project also looks at the role that digital technologies play in protecting traditional knowledge and the impact that this defensive publication and anti-patenting strategy has on local and cultural practices. A key part of the project is a critical discussion of the way that people think about how law and technology interact with one another and how law changes over time to accommodate new objects and shifting attitudes. Specifically, this work challenges the commonly held idea that techno-scientific innovations constantly outpace legal change. I argue that this deterministic account is flawed and problematically frames law as merely a reflective and reactive mechanism that is constantly struggling behind in the wake of socio-technical change. The project is based on ethnographic fieldwork that took place over 24 months in India, California, Hong Kong, and Switzerland.
-
The Impact of Computational Technologies on the Practice of Law and the Legal Profession
This project explores the impact of computational technologies on the practice of law and the legal profession in the United States and Australia. Compared to other fields, such as finance, the legal profession is a relatively late adopter of new technologies, however, this is beginning to rapidly change. This project focuses on understanding the larger socio-technical environment that legal actors are facing and does so by taking a holistic approach that investigates how computational systems, composed of numerous technologies, are arranged and coordinated, as well as which tools become embedded into everyday legal work. The project is based on the idea that incorporating new technologies into social settings, including legal work spaces, is not a seamless or straightforward process and often requires significant changes and these changes must be understood in context.
