The 'Stuart Hall in Translation' series observes ideas in motion. It aims to trace the resonance and transformation of ideas as they oscillate between languages, historical moments, and varying socio-political contexts. The series, produced in partnership with Cultural Studies journal, invites translators of Stuart Hall’s work from across the world to reflect on the following questions: 

- What can be lost and gained when texts are translated into different languages?  

- Can ideas form linkages across difference?  

- How can ideas transcend spatial and temporal boundaries?  

- What are the political implications associated with ideas moving across and between boundaries? 

To initiate the project, we invited Bill Schwarz, co-author of Stuart Hall’s memoir 'Familiar Stranger', and Liv Sovik, professor of Communication at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, to discuss the nuances of translating ‘Familiar Stranger’ and Hall’s ideas into Portuguese for a Brazilian audience.

You can listen to the conversation Bill Schwarz and Liv Sovik here, recorded in August 2022.

In 2024, we extended the invitation to other translators of Hall’s work, asking them to write about their own experiences, and addressing the disparities, challenges, and synergies of translating Hall’s ideas into a different language and national context. These new texts will be published in Cultural Studies Journal and on the Stuart Hall Foundation website in Autumn 2024.  

Sign up to the SHF newsletter to keep updated! 

Supported by Taylor & Francis.

Stuart Hall in Translation: Bill Schwarz and Liv Sovik

In our last episode of The Verso Podcast before the winter break, our host Eleanor Penny is joined by Israeli historian, and activist Ilan Pappé, to discuss the false histories upon which the modern state of Israel is founded. We are of course still working on bringing you more of these in depth discussions with our wonderful Verso authors in our upcoming fourth series, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy this vitally relevant discussion with such an outspoken and incisive Israeli political dissident.

At the start of Israel’s current assault on Gaza, the media was rife with misinformation about the nature of Hamas’ incursion, the events immediately leading up to it, the supposed justifications of Israel’s bombardments, and the histories that set the stage for the devastation we are witnessing now. In the 14 months since, Israel has quietly rolled back on some of these claims, whilst continuing to stand by other convenient mythologies. 

This pattern is nothing new. As Ilan has been highlighting for decades myth and misinformation was always foundational to the modern state of Israel, and its false histories have been used to whitewash, distract from, or justify not just land grabs - but apartheid and an active genocide. Together with Eleanor Penny, Ilan spoke about settler colonialism, liberal zionism, and the role of historians cutting through the media noise - as well as Lord Balfour’s anti-semitism and the pitfalls of the Two State Solution.

Ilan Pappé is an Israeli historian, writer and socialist activist. He is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. His books include The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge, and lastly Ten Myths About Israel, which has recently been reissued and updated by Verso Books (https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/370-ten-myths-about-israel). 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show so you can be the first to know when season four drops!

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Myths about Israel | Ilan Pappé

Cette conversation, enregistrée le 14 décembre 2024, présente les différentes facons dont les habitant*es du quartier Alma Gare à Roubaix s'organisent contre la destruction de leur lieu de vie. Véritable exemple de quartier auto-conçu à la fin des années 70, Alma Gare est aujourd'hui la cible de la spéculation gentrificatrice de la mairie. Florian Vertriest, l'une des figures du combat, nous parle de l'histoire du quartier, de ses habitant*es, et de la manière dont celleux-ci pensent et pratiquent des stratégies pour contrer ce projet et ses démolitions.

Florian Vertriest /// Alma Gare, Roubaix

In this conversation, recorded on March 20th 2025, we speak with Dawn Marie Paley. With Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, she is the co-founder of Ojalá, a digital weekly dedicated to journalism and analysis that aims to foster a common sense of dissidence. Dawn speaks about her motives for launching Ojalá, born from a broader lack of critical leftist reportage on leftist regimes in Latin America, specifically in the English-speaking world. She discusses the role of feminism and autonomous indigenous organizing to these struggles, to the work of Ojalá, and to the recent marches across Mexico for March 8th, the first International Women’s Day under president Claudia Sheinbaum.

Dawn Marie Paley /// Editing Ojalá.mx an introspective look at the Latin American Left and Feminisms

The Funambulist's 59th issue (March-April 2025) is dedicated to Palestinian Return, which led to two collaborations with friends: the exhibition d'abord les fraises, ensuite les fleurs at FORDE in Geneva, and the hosting of this podcast, Architecture of Repair on our plateform. This podcast deliberately makes bridges with our issue, inviting some its contributors Dima Srouji, Areej Ashhab, Mahar Musleh, and Lobna Sana, as well as Mohammed Al Hawajri, Mona AlMsaddar, and Khalid Dader to provide their perspective on the question of Repair, in a similar way we asked our contributors about Return.

Presentation of the podcast by the producers/hosts ///

Architecture of Repair in Palestine is a nomadic forum that brings together architects, conservators, artists, community members, activists and academics to discuss, imagine and elaborate visions of repair for the liberation of Palestine. To help us attune to a language, we have asked a number of Palestinians to share with us their reflections in the form of a monologue that anchors and captures the stream of consciousness of this present moment as they attend to the question: What does repair mean amid genocide and mass destruction? And, is it even still a possibility?

Guest Podcast: Architecture of Repair in Palestine 1/3

Guest Podcast: Architecture of Repair in Palestine 2/3

Guest Podcast: Architecture of Repair in Palestine 3/3

La diaspora tamoule de l'Îlam en France a été centrale dans l'élaboration de ce podcast et il n'est pas un hasard qu'il s'agisse du troisième épisode sur cet imaginaire des luttes (cf. l'épisode avec Apinaya K sur l'histoire de l'Îlam et celui avec Vishni Francis Jeyaratnam à propos du projet National Museum of Eelam). Cette centralité est un double mouvement: celui d'enrichir l'imaginaire politique antiraciste/anticolonial en France a travers l'exemple de la resistance eela tamoule (en particulier a travers l'organisation des Tigres de Libération de l'Îlam Tamoul) et imaginer la possibilité de solidarités envers une lutte toujours en cours. Ce troisième épisode est réalisé avec Vimirsan Vimalanathan et Suvetha Suthan, tou·tes deux membres de l'association eela tamoule en France, Em Inam, qui multiplie les formats de formation et d'action au service de la diaspora et de sa lutte contre les politiques génocidaire de l'état sri lankais.

Em Inam /// S'organiser en diaspora pour la lutte eela tamoule

Today we're posting a trailer for OVERSHOOT, an exciting new series forthcoming from our friends over at Planet B Productions. OVERSHOOT is hosted by Laurie Laybourn, author of Planet on Fire: A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown, published by Verso Books. 
 
In 2015, the world agreed to limit global heating to 1.5°C. Ten years later, temperatures are spiralling beyond this and climate chaos is wreaking havoc across the globe. 

In this major four-part series, host Laurie explores how the world ended up here and uncovers the huge misconceptions and the high-tech fantasies that hold us back. And we meet people with the ideas to navigate what comes next, from protesting pensioners to climate negotiators, Pacific islanders to pre-eminent scientists.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.

Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn
Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt
Production coordination: Daniel Norman
Script consulting: Daniel Trilling
Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox
Original music by Haniell
With special thanks to Aaron Thierry, Mirte Boot, James Dyke, Henry Throp, Stephen Backhouse

Overshoot: Navigating a world beyond 1.5°C (trailer)

For this new episode of our podcast, our two guests are Johannesburg-based artist Zara Julius and regular contributor to The Funambulist Zoé Samudzi. We discuss the contents and forms of A Funeral    For..., a book by Zara in collaboration with Zoé about land, indigeneity, death, and sound in southern Africa (in particular South Africa and Namibia) and, beyond, in the spaces of global Blackness. 

Zara Julius & Zoé Samudzi /// A Funeral For...

An afternoon of stimulating talks, readings and performances focusing on the profound political and economic changes taking place in different parts of the globe and the forms of popular resistance to those changes.

Award-winning poet Mona Arshi read new and recent poems including from her moving and intimate poetry collection, Small Hands. Keynote speeches will be given by playwright and commentator David Edgar and essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra, followed by an open discussion chaired by Gilane Tawadros, the Vice-Chair of Stuart Hall Foundation.

The First Stuart Hall Public Conversation 3rd Feb 2018

Inspired by the life and work of Professor Stuart Hall, the Stuart Hall Foundation is committed to public education, addressing urgent questions of race and inequality in culture and society through talks and events, and building a network of SHF scholars and artists in residence.