Patenting nature or Protecting Culture? Ethnopharmacology and Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights

A Conversation with Ian McGonigle and Osiris Sinuhé González Romero

Wednesday, September 29th from 6-7:30pm PST

The recent the boom of patents in the psychedelic space has been accompanied by controversial issues related to intellectual property, reciprocity and Indigenous rights, and much remains poorly understood. Attempting to apply scientific and legal frameworks to study traditional medicine presents inherent epistemological and ethical problems. What can be done to help protect the plants and honor Indigenous wisdom and culture in the modern psychedelic renaissance? Join biologist and anthropologist Dr. Ian McGonigle, in conversation with Dr. Osiris Sinuhé González Romero for the next event in Chacruna’s special series Patenting the Sacred. Dr. McGonigle will share his unique expertise in both biology and anthropology to explore how these fields intersect to understand traditional plant medicine and culture. He will reflect upon the costs and benefits of legally protecting plants and attempt to present a deeper understanding of the ethical and epistemological issues of studying traditional medicine scientifically.

Ian McGonigle is a Nanyang Assistant Professor of Global Science, Technology, and Society in the Division of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Before joining NTU, he held postdoctoral positions at Tel Aviv University, Harvard University, and the University of Cambridge. Ian received a BA in Biochemistry with Cell Biology from Trinity College Dublin in 2007; a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in 2010; an MA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 2013; and an AM in Social Anthropology, in 2015, and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and Anthropology, in 2018, from Harvard University. His work has been published in top scientific journals including Biochemistry, Biophysical Journal, The FASEB Journal, and The Journal of Neuroscience. His book, Genomic Citizenship (MIT Press 2021), based on his Harvard dissertation that won the Association for Middle East Anthropology dissertation award, expands on this theme and theorizes these relationships. He teaches social theory, an upper-level undergraduate seminar on science and identity; and a lecture course on societies in a comparative perspective that draws on empirical material from Israel, Qatar, and Singapore.

Osiris Sinuhé González Romero earned his PhD at Leiden University, in the Faculty of Archaeology-Heritage ofIndigenous Peoples. His dissertation “Tlamatiliztli: the wisdom of the Nahua people. Intercultural philosophy and right to land”, has been published by Leiden University Press. He was awarded the Coimbra Group Scholarship for Young Professors and Researchers from Latin American Universities in 2015. He has been involved in psychedelic research since 2008. He is part of the Chacruna Chronicles editorial team. He is also founder member of Via Synapsis, and academic society focused on the organization of the University Congress of Psychoactive Substances hosted by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Faculty of Philosophy since 2014. Currently he is a Postdoctoral researcher on cognitive freedom and psychedelic humanities at the University of Saskatchewan. He has been working on the book, New Essays on History and Philosophy of Psychedelics. His research interests include: philosophy of psychedelics, history of medicine, indigenous knowledge, decolonial theory, political philosophy, heritage studies, and aesthetics.

This talk will be recorded and immediately available for rewatch for all attendees.

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Patenting Nature or Protecting Culture? Ethnopharmacology and Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights