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A U of T professor and a PhD student are heading south of the border as beneficiaries of the world-renowned Fulbright program, an educational movement that fosters scholarly exchange between the United States and other countries.

U of T Scarborough professor Andrew Stark, who also teaches at the Rotman School of Management, has been granted a Fulbright Scholar Award, allowing him to spend nine months at Columbia University. He will be conducting research on U.S. intellectual property conflicts, including battles waged in the courts, legislative forums or academic and media outlets. Stark will explore these conflicts as a series of problems in philosophy.

Steven Hoffman, a U of T law/political science alumnus, has received a Fulbright Student Award to Harvard University where he will pursue a PhD. His research is focused on global health.

U of T’s student population will also increase by one, thanks to the Fulbright program. Ryan Lange, a Fulbright Award recipient from Chicago’s Northwestern University, will be coming to U of T to study public health.

“It is with a great deal of pleasure that I welcome Professor Andrew Stark and Mr. Steven Hoffman to the distinguished group of Canada-U.S. Fulbright scholars,” said Michael Hawes, executive director of Fulbright Canada. “Their success brings tremendous credit to the University of Toronto and to the Canada-U.S. Fulbright program.”

Stark, who holds a PhD from Harvard University and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, has a strong interest in ethics. He joined the University of Toronto in 1992. Among his published works is the book Conflict of Interest in American Public Life.

“My argument is that many of the questions with which litigants and judges wrestle can be viewed not just through legal but through philosophical lenses,” said Stark.  “And when they are, the kinds of norms that courts and lawyers have been struggling toward become much clearer and more coherent.

“Participants in intellectual property cases are actually philosophers without knowing it. As one U.S. court wrote recently, intellectual property has become a “realm where the analysis sounds more like metaphysics than law.”

He is looking forward to his upcoming sojourn at Columbia.

“Being in New York will make it possible for me to access primary material such as legal briefs, and to be in contact with members of the city’s IP legal community,” said Stark.