Dr Susannah Chapman is a Research Fellow at The University of Queensland.Trained as an environmental and legal anthropologist, her research explores the intersection of law, science, and society, with a particular focus on transformations in human-plant relations, intellectual property, and seed regulation since the early twentieth century. Using ethnographic and archival methods, her work asks questions about the coloniality, biopolitics, and translational practices of contemporary efforts to regulate plant reproductive material and crop diversity in both The Gambia and Australia. Dr Chapman was awarded her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Georgia. She has previously worked at the University of Georgia, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and the University of The Gambia.
Dr Chapman's research speaks to issues of agrobiodiversity conservation, the politics of translation in deliberations over intellectual property, and shifts in regulatory structures for plant germplasm. Her current research explores issues how changes in intellectual property arrangements in Australia are reshaping the social, economic, and technological relations of agricultural supply chains.
Journal Article: What should farmers’ rights look like? The possible substance of a right
Adhikari, Kamalesh, Bikundo, Edwin, Chacko, Xan, Chapman, Susannah, Humphries, Fran, Johnson, Hope, Keast, Evan, Lawson, Charles, Malbon, Justin, Robinson, Daniel, Rourke, Michelle, Sanderson, Jay and Tranter, Kieran (2021). What should farmers’ rights look like? The possible substance of a right. Agronomy, 11 (2) 367, 1-19. doi: 10.3390/agronomy11020367
Journal Article: The cosmopolitics of food futures: imagining nature, law, and apocalypse
Bosse, Jocelyn, Chacko, Xan and Chapman, Susannah (2020). The cosmopolitics of food futures: imagining nature, law, and apocalypse. Continuum, 34 (6), 1-18. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2020.1842124
Book Chapter: Agrobiodiversity loss and the construction of regulatory frameworks for crop germplasm
Chapman, Susannah and Heald, Paul J. (2020). Agrobiodiversity loss and the construction of regulatory frameworks for crop germplasm. Environmental resilience and food law. (pp. 159-179) edited by Gabriela Steier and Alberto Giulio Cianci. Boca Raton, FL USA: CRC Press. doi: 10.1201/9780429443350-9
The Social Life of Royalties: Plant intellectual property in Australia
(2021–2024) ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
(2019–2021) UQ Development Fellowships
(2019–2021) UQ Early Career Researcher
Archaeobotany of the Spread of Food Production in Eastern Africa
Doctor Philosophy
Inventing DNA: Exploring the Patent System's Conceptualisation of Novel Genetic Products
Doctor Philosophy
Patent Protection in Bhutan and its impact on plant genetic resources
Doctor Philosophy
Intellectual property and agriculture
Brad Sherman and Susannah Chapman eds. (2020). Intellectual property and agriculture. Critical Concepts in Intellectual Property Law series, Cheltenham, United Kingdom : Edward Elgar. doi: 10.4337/9781788973885
Agrobiodiversity loss and the construction of regulatory frameworks for crop germplasm
Chapman, Susannah and Heald, Paul J. (2020). Agrobiodiversity loss and the construction of regulatory frameworks for crop germplasm. Environmental resilience and food law. (pp. 159-179) edited by Gabriela Steier and Alberto Giulio Cianci. Boca Raton, FL USA: CRC Press. doi: 10.1201/9780429443350-9
Ethnographic explorations of intellectual property
Coombe, Rosemary J. and Chapman, Susannah (2020). Ethnographic explorations of intellectual property. In Oxford research encyclopedia of anthropology (pp. 1-45) Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.115
Rethinking intellectual property law's relationship with agriculture
Sherman, Brad and Chapman, Susannah (2020). Rethinking intellectual property law's relationship with agriculture. Intellectual property and agriculture. (pp. xiii-xviii) edited by Brad Sherman and Susannah Chapman. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar.
Apples of Their Eyes: Apple Trees and Memory Keepers of the American South
Chapman, Susannah and Brown, Tom (2013). Apples of Their Eyes: Apple Trees and Memory Keepers of the American South. Seeds of Resistance/Seeds of Hope: Place and Agency in the Conservation of Biodiversity. (pp. 42-64) edited by Virginia Nazarea, Robert Rhoades and Jenna Andrews-Swann. Arizona USA: University of Arizona Press.
What should farmers’ rights look like? The possible substance of a right
Adhikari, Kamalesh, Bikundo, Edwin, Chacko, Xan, Chapman, Susannah, Humphries, Fran, Johnson, Hope, Keast, Evan, Lawson, Charles, Malbon, Justin, Robinson, Daniel, Rourke, Michelle, Sanderson, Jay and Tranter, Kieran (2021). What should farmers’ rights look like? The possible substance of a right. Agronomy, 11 (2) 367, 1-19. doi: 10.3390/agronomy11020367
The cosmopolitics of food futures: imagining nature, law, and apocalypse
Bosse, Jocelyn, Chacko, Xan and Chapman, Susannah (2020). The cosmopolitics of food futures: imagining nature, law, and apocalypse. Continuum, 34 (6), 1-18. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2020.1842124
To make one's name famous: varietal innovation and intellectual property in The Gambia
Chapman, Susannah (2018). To make one's name famous: varietal innovation and intellectual property in The Gambia. American Ethnologist, 45 (4), 482-494. doi: 10.1111/amet.12703
Finding a place for agriculture in intellectual property law
Chapman, Susannah and Sherman, Brad (2018). Finding a place for agriculture in intellectual property law. IIC International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, 49 (7), 759-762. doi: 10.1007/s40319-018-0753-8
Chapman, Susannah (2017). The politics of distinction: African elites from colonialism to liberation in a Namibian frontier town. American Ethnologist, 44 (2), 363-364. doi: 10.1111/amet.12491
Veggie Tales: Pernicious Myths About Patents, Innovation and Crop Diversity in the Twentieth Century
Chapman, Susannah and Heald, Paul J. (2012). Veggie Tales: Pernicious Myths About Patents, Innovation and Crop Diversity in the Twentieth Century. University of Illinois Law Review, 2012 (4), 1051-1102.
Proprietary plants and datafied supply chains: From bulk commodities to brand name fruits
Chapman, Susannah (2019). Proprietary plants and datafied supply chains: From bulk commodities to brand name fruits. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada, 20 - 24 November 2019.
Chapman, Susannah (2018). Regulating the circulation of intangibles: end point royalties, intellectual property, and transformations in food production. Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Conference, Sydney, Australia, 29 August - 1 September 2018.
Chapman, Susannah (2018). Regulating the circulation of lively biological property: traceability, quality, and trade mark in the market for Calypso mangoes. Fabricating Trust Workshop, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 12 September 2018.
Chapman, Susannah (2016). New varieties, agricultural experts, and "Native" farmers: the politics and power of recognition in British Colonial Gambia. American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 16-20 November 2016.
Chapman, Susannah and Heald, Paul J. (2010). Apple Diversity Report Card for the Twentieth Century: Patents and Other Sources of Innovation in the Market for Apples': UGA Legal Studies Research Paper No. 10-01. UGA Legal Studies Research Paper
Crop Diversity Report Card for the Twentieth Century: Diversity Bust or Diversity Boom?
Heald, Paul J. and Chapman, Susannah (2009). Crop Diversity Report Card for the Twentieth Century: Diversity Bust or Diversity Boom?.
Patents and Vegetable Crop Diversity: UGA Legal Studies Research Paper No. 09-017
Heald, Paul J. and Chapman, Susannah (2009). Patents and Vegetable Crop Diversity: UGA Legal Studies Research Paper No. 09-017. University Of Georgia School Of Law Research Paper Series University Of Georgia School Of Law.
The Social Life of Royalties: Plant intellectual property in Australia
(2021–2024) ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
(2019–2021) UQ Development Fellowships
(2019–2021) UQ Early Career Researcher
Archaeobotany of the Spread of Food Production in Eastern Africa
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Inventing DNA: Exploring the Patent System's Conceptualisation of Novel Genetic Products
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Patent Protection in Bhutan and its impact on plant genetic resources
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
The Role of the Law in the Circulation of the Kakadu Plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana)
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
(2019) Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors: