A nationally known expert in intellectual property with a focus in entrepreneurship and the arts has been selected as the next dean of the UNH School of Law. Megan Carpenter, founder and co-director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University School of Law, will join UNH Law on July 1. She will be the first woman to lead the school since its founding in 1973.
UNH Provost Nancy Targett says Carpenter brings a wealth of experience that will help UNH Law continue to grow on the national stage. “Her work creating innovative academic programs, including experiential learning initiatives, certificate programs and interdisciplinary projects with colleges throughout the Texas A&M University System will open new directions for UNH Law,” says Targett. “Her expertise, energy and enthusiasm will invigorate our faculty and staff and ensure we are continuing to provide the best possible law education and experience for our students.” UNH Law has been ranked among the top 10 schools for the study of intellectual property law for 25 consecutive years.
Carpenter, who regularly writes and publishes in the area of intellectual property and entrepreneurship, earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in foreign languages from West Virginia University, her J.D. from West Virginia University College of Law and her LL.M. from the National University of Galway.
“I look forward to working with faculty, staff, students, alumni and the broader university community to develop programs that further the law school’s mission to empower students in a global environment and to serve the public with integrity and excellence,” Carpenter says. “With its worldwide reputation for excellence in intellectual property, its forward-thinking approach to legal education and its role as part of a public research university, UNH Law is uniquely poised to excel in a changing legal environment.”
Associate professor of anthropology Eleanor Harrison-Buck was one of eight humanities educators around the country recently awarded a $50,000 Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship. A scholar whose research focuses on the classic Maya “collapse” period and subsequent Spanish and British colonial periods in Belize, Harrison-Buck will use her fellowship to establish a public history museum in that country that focuses on the often-overlooked Kriol (Creole) community.
Harrison-Buck says most historical and cultural emphasis excludes the rich history and culture of the Kriol. “I’ve conducted archaeological research in Belize for more than 25 years and helped to establish a temporary exhibit on Kriol culture last summer,” she says. “It’s time there is a permanent record of this community.”
Harrison-Buck will take a year-long leave from UNH and work in collaboration with Kriol community leaders, educators and local and regional authorities. The new museum will include local oral histories, artifacts, images and stories to present the culture to tourists, teachers and students.
UNH Institute on Disability (IOD) researcher Mary Schuh has been awarded a one-year Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation Public Policy Fellowship. A research associate professor of education and director of development and consumer affairs and the National Center on Inclusive Education at the IOD, Schuh will use her fellowship to explore the question of how to best preserve and promote innovative public policies that create welcoming and supportive communities for individuals with disabilities and their families. “I hope to have a role in positively impacting the answer,” she says.
Schuh has been with the IOD since its inception in 1987. “I am so grateful to the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation to have been selected to join the family of Kennedy Fellows and participate in what will probably be one of the most significant learning opportunities of my life,” she says.
Originally published in UNH Magazine Spring 2017 Issue
