Countersign

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COUNTERSIGN is a podcast hosted by Stewart Motha, Professor of Law at Birkbeck. Stewart and guests discuss books, films, and other materials from across disciplines which open new perspectives on law, difference, and plural existence.

Stewart Motha


    • Dec 5, 2024 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 1h 3m AVG DURATION
    • 21 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Countersign

    'The Wall': Human/Animal Ethics for Catastrophic Times

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2024 45:30


    Discussing Marlen Haushofer's novel The Wall (1963) with Anna Richards (Birkbeck). What does it mean to survive a catastrophic event? How can we navigate the barrier between human and non-human animals?

    Animals as Food: Violence, Labour, Capital

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2024 66:49


    Discussing two books by Dinesh Wadiwel on animals as food: The War Against Animals (Brill, 2015); and Animals and Capital (Edinburgh University Press, 2023). Wadiwel examines animal agriculture as sovereign violence; and the structural place of animal labour in capitalist modes of value generation and reproduction. What are the political and ecological implications of treating animals as food? What are the grounds for stopping the cruelty and torture meted out to animals?

    Animals, Vivisection, and a Row with Darwin

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 26, 2024 66:16


    Discussing Alison Stone's book ‘Frances Power Cobbe' regarding the 19th C philosopher and feminist who developed a moral theory on the status and treatment of animals; founded anti-vivisection societies; and reconciled her Victorian Christian ideas with Darwin's theory of evolution. How is the relative status and value of animals to humans to be judged? What do emotions have to do with morality? What is the relationship between culture and norms?

    What we talk about when we talk about genocide

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 11, 2023 48:29


    Discussing the concept of genocide with international human rights lawyer and social theorist, Vasuki Nesiah (NYU Gallatin). Is genocide event or process? How do we move from idea of genocide as apex crime in international criminal law to appreciating its role in the structural process of world-making? We discuss the implications of her analysis for thinking through the war in Gaza. For more details visit: https://countersignisapodcast.com

    What is the Matter with New Materialism?

    Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2023 71:12


    Discussing Richard A. Lee's The Thought of Matter: Materialism, Conceptuality and the Transcendence of Immanence (2016). Thought and matter are distinct, separate. The explosion of new materialisms emphasise the agency of things without a critical philosophy that can sustain ethical and normative commitments. How does philosophical materialism allow the otherness of thought to emerge?

    Climate Wreckage, Pagan Vitalities, and Truth

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2023 64:42


    Discussing William E. Connolly's recent books on climate catastrophes; examining geological volatilities; considering pagan thinkers

    Provincializing the Anthropocene

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 23, 2022 64:27


    Discussing human & planetary time with Prof Dipesh Chakrabarty (Uni of Chicago)

    Corporations are Psychopaths

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 20, 2022 68:40


    Discussion with Joel Bakan of book and film, The New Corporation (2020), which reveals a world now fully remade in the corporation's image, perilously close to losing democracy.

    EcoLaw

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2022 70:24


    Discussing norms derived from nature with Margaret Davies, author of EcoLaw: Legality, Life, and the Normativity of Nature (2022). Nomos and nature are usually viewed in opposition. Here we ask, what are the norms to be derived from nature? How do they emerge and coexist?

    Earthbound in the Anthropocene

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2022 68:21


    Discussing Daniel Matthews's book Earthbound: The Aesthetics of Sovereignty in the Anthropocene (2021). How does obligation signal a new ethics and politics for our time?

    The History of a Lie: The Mabo Case after 30 years

    Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2022 61:26


    Discussing the Australian High Court's landmark ruling in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992), the failure of decolonisation; and how the case enabled the growth of extractive industries and mining.

    Border Mentality

    Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2021 36:50


    Behrouz Boochani discusses his book No Friend but the Mountains and Australia's border mentality.

    Historiographic Perversion

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 26, 2021 73:26


    Discussing Marc Nichanian's 'Historiographic Perversion' on the denial of the extermination of Armenians in 1915. How are historians and archives complicit? What are the limits of representing genocide through memory, testimony, or art?

    What Rape Narratives Do

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 20, 2020 70:00


    Discussing Tanya Serisier's 'Speaking Out: Feminism, Rape, and Narrative Politics' which considers the political value and outcome of 'breaking the silence' on rape and sexual violence. What are the conditions in which such speech is heard?

    Gardening as International Law

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2020 74:48


    Discussing Gerry Simpson's The Sentimental Life of International Law - we explore how indirection, hesitancy, and gardening offer a 'style' of engagement that moves people to hope and action.

    A Ship as Archive of the Present

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2020 68:41


    Discussing Renisa Mawani's book Across Oceans of Law - concerning issues of migration, Empire, and indigenous peoples as encapsulated in the story of the 1914 voyage of the ship, Komagata Maru.

    Enduring Time

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2020 64:22


    Discussion with Lisa Baraitser on her book 'Enduring Time', addressing the suspended time of mothering, care, grief, solitary confinement, and anachronistic political ideas.

    Cultural Politics of 'World' Archives

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2020 64:43


    Discussion with Nanna Bonde Thylstrup on mass digitization and attempts at ‘total archives' - revealing the corporate and cultural domination of Google Books, Europeana, and the ‘shadow' libraries that subvert these.

    When Rocks Speak

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2020 67:55


    Discussing Elizabeth A. Povinelli's Geontologies: A Requiem To Late Liberalism - challenging the distinction between life and non-life. Drawing on knowledge from Indigenous people from the Northern Territory, Australia, hear how humans and apparently inert things like rocks and fog are intertwined and co-constituted.

    The Day After Independence

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2020 61:12


    Discussing Naeem Mohaiemen's film 'Two Meetings and a Funeral' which revisits the Non-Aligned Movement, decolonisation of the 1960-70s, and the legacy of the hopes and disappointments of political movements.

    Culture Wars to Algorithmic Feudalism

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2020 61:13


    Taking Patricia J. Williams' 1997 BBC Reith Lectures as a point of departure, we discuss the paradoxes of race in the U.S and U.K from then to now. What will gene manipulation, biotechnology, and data gathering bring?

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