Ideas, Innovation and Ownership: Navigating IPR in Digital Humanities

The Department of English and Cultural Studies, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Pune Lavasa Campus, conducted a session titled "Ideas, Innovation and Ownership: Navigating IPR in Digital Humanities" on 18 September 2026. The session was led by Dr Purnendu Acharjee, Associate Professor in the Department of BBA at CHRIST University, Lavasa. Linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Quality Education (SDG 4) and Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9), the event aimed to help students understand how ownership, creativity and responsibility come together in digital scholarship.

The session opened with a short icebreaker, "Who Owns This?", in which students looked at everyday examples of digital content and considered who holds the rights to them. This activity showed that questions of ownership arise in ordinary online life, and not only in law or business. The facilitator then introduced the basic concepts of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), including copyright, ownership, licensing, attribution and permissions. Particular attention was given to the relevance of these ideas for Digital Humanities, especially digital archives, storytelling, multimedia projects, websites and scholarly work, where researchers routinely handle texts, images and recordings created by others.

The central part of the programme was a case-study-based group activity. Students examined practical situations involving photographs, literary texts, archival materials, audiovisual content and online resources. Working in groups, they discussed whether such materials could be used, what permissions might be required and how appropriate attribution could be given. This approach moved the conversation from abstract principles to the kinds of decisions students face when building their own projects. The activity was designed to help students weigh legal requirements alongside ethical practice, and to recognise that small choices, such as reusing an image or quoting from an archive, carry real responsibilities. During the discussion, the facilitator clarified key concepts such as Creative Commons, the public domain, and fair dealing and fair use. The session also addressed emerging IPR concerns related to artificial intelligence, an area in which questions about authorship, source material and permissions are still developing and are of growing interest to humanities researchers.

The session concluded with a practical reflection activity in which students identified IPR considerations in their own academic or digital projects, allowing them to apply what they had learned to their own work. A short quiz assessed their understanding of the concepts covered, and a brief discussion of key takeaways followed. Throughout, the facilitator emphasised the importance of responsible creation, ethical use and the protection of intellectual and creative work in Digital Humanities, a field where digital tools make sharing easy but ownership unclear.

Overall, the session combined conceptual grounding with hands-on practice. The format kept participants actively involved from the opening icebreaker through to the closing discussion. By bringing a perspective from management studies to a humanities audience, it encouraged students to see copyright and licensing not as obstacles but as part of good scholarly practice. It also gave participants a practical starting point for producing, sharing and protecting digital work with awareness, care and integrity.