Johanna Blakley

USA

Johanna Blakley is the deputy director of the Norman Lear Center, a think tank that studies the convergence of entertainment, commerce and society. Based at University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, Blakley performs research on global entertainment, cultural diplomacy, celebrity culture, digital media and intellectual property law. Blakley has overseen two major research initiatives about the impact of intellectual property rights on innovation and creativity - Ready to Share: Fashion & the Ownership of Creativity and Artists, Technology & the Ownership of Creative Content.

Blakley received a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and she has held a variety of positions within the high-tech industry, including Web producer and digital archivist at Vivendi-Universal Games. Blakley is on the board of directors for Les Figues Press, a venue for literary experimentation.