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

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 reparations now. How is responsibility for the past being renegotiated after the end of revolutionary postcolonial horizons?

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. Madlingozi speaks of his childhood lived in the midst of environmental racism and racist capitalism as his father toiled in the mines, and his family contended with separations and living next to a 'shit dump' where effluent from white suburbs was disposed. We consider how world-destroying aspects of colonialism have survived in the supposedly post-apartheid era. Madlingozi explains what it would mean to reconstitute a society and nation in the context of decolonisation?

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 the duration of irradiation. We explore the history of extraction and colonisation of the Fukushima region and people; as well as the social networks that have emerged to provide mutual aid, and re-imagine the infrastructures for living with more-than-human life that has returned to Fukushima in greater numbers more recently.Artists in Don't Follow the Wind include:AI WEIWEI, CHIM↑POM, NIKOLAUS HIRSCH & JORGE OTERO-PAILOS, MEIRO KOIZUMI, EVA & FRANCO MATTES, GRAND GUIGNOL MIRAI, AIKO MIYANAGA, AHMET ÖĞÜT, TREVOR PAGLEN, TARYN SIMON, NOBUAKI TAKEKAWA, and KOTA TAKEUCHI.

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 reflexivity of state power and authority as they shift in response to new technologies.

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 Vietnam War whose dead are barely memorialised in the West. We consider resonances of this violence with the present moment, and what political conjunctures enable the emergence of new meanings from past events; and reflect on the imminent election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of NYC.

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 Spirit of the Law (2024) examines the tension between rights in contract and constitutions. At a time when a hyper-contractarian mentality has taken over diplomacy, eroded the rules-based international order, and rolled back the gains of the Civil Rights Movement -we consider the implications through histories of racialisation and the afterlives of slavery.

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 elsewhere as a result of climate change and biodiversity destruction. The International Court of Justice has been tasked with issuing an Advisory Opinion on the obligations and responsibilities of States in relation to climate change. We discuss what is at stake in the ICJ decision, and the varying positions adopted by States most responsible for GHG emissions compared with those most affected by their actions and omissions.

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?

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?

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?