Countersign

Countersign is a podcast

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Fukushima – the art of staying with the trouble

Feat. Jason Waite 6th March 2026 1h 10m More Information

In brief

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 to consider new perspectives on law, difference, and being in common.

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Fukushima – the art of staying with the trouble

Feat. Jason Waite 06 Mar 26 1h 10m Information

Materialities of State Surveillance

Feat. Bernard Keenan 21 Jan 26 1h 3m Information

A Burden of Unmourned Deaths

Feat. Naeem Mohaiemen 03 Nov 25 1h 5m Information

The Tyranny of the Deal: Race, Contract, and the Spirit of the Law

Feat. Patricia J. Williams 27 Mar 25 1h 3m Information

‘When the trees have gone’ – Veraibari and the Pacific at the International Court of Justice

Feat. Alofipo So'oalo Fleur Ramsay & Watna Mori 11 Feb 25 1h 4m Information

‘The Wall’: Human/Animal Ethics for Catastrophic Times

Feat. Anna Richards 05 Dec 24 45m Information

Animals as Food: Violence, Labour, Capital

Feat. Dinesh Wadiwel 05 Aug 24 1h 6m Information

Frances Power Cobbe: Animals, Vivisection, and a Row with Darwin

Feat. Alison Stone 26 Jan 24 1h 5m Information

What we talk about when we talk about genocide

Feat. Vasuki Nesiah 11 Dec 23 48m Information

What is the Matter with New Materialism?

Feat. Richard A. Lee Jr. 23 May 23 1h 11m Information
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When Rocks Speak

Feat. Elizabeth A. Povinelli 8th July 2020 1h 7m

Discussing Povinelli’s ‘Geontologies’ which challenges the distinction between life and non-life. Informed by knowledge and concepts from Indigenous people of the Northern Territory, Australia, hear how humans, rocks, and fog are co-constituted. How is geontopower distinct from biopower?

BIO Elizabeth A. Povinelli is Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York. Her books have developed a critical theory of late settler liberalism that would support an anthropology of the otherwise.

Her decades-long collaboration with Indigenous colleagues in northern Australia have resulted in many books and six films produced by the Karrabing Film Collective.
CAPTION Elizabeth A. Povinelli – Geontologies: A Requiem to Late Liberalism (Duke University Press)
CAPTION Elizabeth A. Povinelli
CAPTION The Mermaids