State Of The Theory

This is Episode 44 of the State of the Theory Podcast. Politics. Power. Popular Culture. And other stuff, probably. In this series, we’re like super nerdy philosophical DJs: mashing up Serious Academic Questions with the most topical news and trends in pop culture. Each week, we’ll tackle a new topic and collide it with ‘critical theory’ (we’re pretty loose with our definitions, though, so expect the unexpected). Our aim is to destroy the stuff we know, explore the stuff we don’t and unsettle everything we think we know about the world. We take the obvious, the commonsensical, the certain, and then we rip it all to shreds. We are your theory doctors and we are always on call. In this episode, we talk about the story of Shamima Begum, and connect it to a number of other news stories (such as the Trump administration’s family separation policy, and a number of high-profile shootings of African-African boys) to think about birthright citizenship and childhood. What kind of bodies does the nation-state feel ab