The “
International Classroom Initiative” has been in development by entertainment attorney/professor Deborah Wagnon for over two years and is now ready to launch its first program June 7-30, 2014. It will be held on campus at the University of Belize in Belmopan. The course will be attended by both Middle Tennessee State University students who have been selected to participate in the Study Abroad Belize program, as well as those University of Belize students who are interested in the subject matter. The MTSU students participating are primarily seniors in the well-known Department of Recording Industry program in the College of Mass Communication. Masters and doctoral students in certain international areas of study are also selected for the program.
The purpose of the Initiative is to establish an ongoing, reciprocal relationship with the creative arts, academic and intellectual property/legal communities of Central America, with Belize as the primary portal for that exchange. Our 2014 Belize-based partner and mutual signatory to our 2014 Memorandum of Understanding is critically-acclaimed international record label, Stonetree Records.
The June 7-30, 2014 program will be a focused inquiry into the country of Belize as well as the developing entertainment and intellectual property-related industries of all of Central America. It will specifically address the opportunity for global growth and reciprocity with the fully-evolved U.S. intellectual property industries, including the business and art of the entertainment industry. We will investigate music, books, film, television programming, software and any other intellectual property content which is subject to protection globally via copyright, trademark and/or patent. We will also study the broader issues of international law that affect intellectual property rights, e.g. world organizations and treaties in force. U.S. entertainment attorney & intellectual property professor, Deborah Wagnon, has developed the International Classroom Initiative and will oversee the program’s lecture and guest speaker series, to be held in the Auditorium of University of Belize at the Belmopan Campus Monday through Thursday 9AM-1PM over the three week period. University of Belize students from all five campus locations have an open invitation to attend any or all of the lecture/guest speaker series. Our speakers will bring expertise from multiple areas including law, music, film, media, business, government and education.