PODCAST · society
Countersign
by Stewart Motha
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.
Episodes
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Reparations and New World Slavery
Discussing New World slavery as irreparable evil with David Scott, Ruth and William Lubic Professor, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York. We consider the destruction of forms of life through slavery, genocide, and colonialism and consider why there is a renewed demand for...
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'Dumps & Dead Miners' - South African constitutionalism without constitution
Discussion with Prof Tshepo Madlingozi, South African Human Rights Commissioner, on the legacy of colonialism and Apartheid as we approach the 30th anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the adoption of the Constitution of South Africa, signed by President Mandela in 1996....
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Fukushima - the art of staying with the trouble
How does art take us closer to the nature of the ongoing catastrophe in Fukushima? I visited the Fukushima nuclear reactor exclusion zone with art curator Jason Waite. The collective art project, 'Don't Follow the Wind', interrogates the nature of nuclear catastrophe with practices that mirror…
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Materialities of State Surveillance
Discussing Bernard Keenan's book 'Interception: State Surveillance from Postal Systems to Global Networks' (MIT, 2025). We discuss the history of state surveillance from the 17th century to the present. Surveillance is tied to the medium of communication; and through this we consider the...
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A Burden of Unmourned Deaths
Discussing student protests, killing of protesters, and deployment of the National Guard - Naeem Mohaiemen and I discuss his latest film, 'Through a Mirror, Darkly'. The archival footage concerns the killing of students in May 1970 at Kent State, and Jackson Mississippi, while the U.S pursues the...
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The Tyranny of the Deal: Race, Contract, and the Spirit of the Law
What are the origins and implications of hyper-transactional thinking coming out of Trump 2.0? I discuss this and other issues with the eminent critical race theorist and legal scholar Patricia J. Williams whose latest book, The Miracle of the Black Leg: Notes on Race, Human Bodies, and the…
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'When the trees have gone' - Veraibari and the Pacific at the International Court of Justice
Discussion with international lawyers, Alofipo So'oalo Fleur Ramsay and Watna Mori, on the impacts of climate destruction on the Village of Veraibari, Kikori Delta, Papua New Guinea. Veraibari is emblematic of wider devastation impacting small island communities and States in the Pacific and...
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'The Wall': Human/Animal Ethics for Catastrophic Times
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?
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Animals as Food: Violence, Labour, Capital
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…
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Animals, Vivisection, and a Row with Darwin
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...
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What we talk about when we talk about genocide
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...
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What is the Matter with New Materialism?
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...
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Climate Wreckage, Pagan Vitalities, and Truth
Discussing William E. Connolly's recent books on climate catastrophes; examining geological volatilities; considering pagan thinkers
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Provincializing the Anthropocene
Discussing human & planetary time with Prof Dipesh Chakrabarty (Uni of Chicago)
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Corporations are Psychopaths
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.
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EcoLaw
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?
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Earthbound in the Anthropocene
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?
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The History of a Lie: The Mabo Case after 30 years
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.
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Border Mentality
Behrouz Boochani discusses his book No Friend but the Mountains and Australia's border mentality.
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Historiographic Perversion
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?
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What Rape Narratives Do
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?
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Gardening as International Law
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.
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A Ship as Archive of the Present
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.
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Enduring Time
Discussion with Lisa Baraitser on her book 'Enduring Time', addressing the suspended time of mothering, care, grief, solitary confinement, and anachronistic political ideas.
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Cultural Politics of 'World' Archives
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.
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When Rocks Speak
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…
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The Day After Independence
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.
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Culture Wars to Algorithmic Feudalism
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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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
Stewart Motha
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Countersign have?
Countersign currently has 28 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Countersign about?
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.
How often does Countersign release new episodes?
Countersign has 28 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Countersign?
You can listen to Countersign on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Countersign?
Countersign is created and hosted by Stewart Motha.
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