Dr Kojo Koram
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Dr Kojo Koram is a Reader in Law at Birkbeck School of Law, University of London. He joined Birkbeck in September 2018. Prior to taking up this role, he was a Lecturer at the School of Law at the University of Essex between 2016-2018.
He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2011 and then received his PhD in 2017. In 2018, the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities awarded his PhD the Julien Mezey Dissertation Award for the dissertation that most promises to enrich and advance interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of law, culture and the humanities.
In 2022, he published his debut book Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire (John Murray 2022) which was nominated for the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
Alongside his academic work, Kojo has also written for publications as varied as the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nation, Dissent and the New Statesman.
Highlights
Latest Article- 'The Vitorian recovery and the (re)turn towards a sacrificial international law' London Review of International Law, Vol.6, No.3, pp.443-470
Latest Collection- The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line (London: Pluto Press, 2019) Kojo Koram (eds)
Latest Book- Uncommon Wealth: Britain and Aftermath of Empire (London: John Murray, 2022)
Qualifications
- LLB, University of Kent, 2010
- Called to Bar of England and Wales, Middle Temple, 2011
- LLM, University of London, 2013
- PhD in Law, University of London, 2017
Web profiles
Administrative responsibilities
- LLB Programme Director
Professional activities
Member of the Harm Reduction International Board of Directors
Member of the Middle Temple Equality, Diversity and Social Mobility committee
Honours and awards
- The Claudia Jones Award, The Caribbean Philosophical Association, August 2015
- Julien Mezey Dissertation Award, The Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities , August 2017
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Research
Research
Research interests
- International Law
- Law and Empire
- Political Economy
- Critical Race Theory
- Drugs Law
Research overview
Methodologically, Dr Koram's work draws upon a wide array of scholarly traditions including decolonial theory, critical legal theory, historical materialism, and law and literature.
Research Centres and Institutes
- Member, Centre for Research on Race and Law
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
Current doctoral researchers
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SARAH BEKKALI
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STEPHANIE BAILEY
Teaching
Teaching modules
- The History and Philosophy of Human Rights (LADD005S7)
- Legal Systems and Methods (LALA157S4)
- Legal Systems and Methods (Senior Status) (LALA158S6)
- Perspectives on Political Economy (LALW064S7)
- Legal Methods and Skills (GDL) (LALW111H6)
- Clinical Case Work (LALW122H5)
- International Law 1 (Foundations) (Level 6) (SC08001H6)
- International Law 2 (Advanced) (Level 6) (SC08002H6)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Koram, Kojo (2022) The legalisation of Cannabis and the question of reparations. Journal of International Economic Law 25 (2), pp. 294-311. ISSN 1369-3034.
- Koram, Kojo (2022) Drug prohibition and the policing of warfare. Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development 13 (1), pp. 22-39. ISSN 21514372.
- Koram, Kojo (2022) Phantasmal commodities: law, violence and the Juris-diction of drugs. Third World Quarterly 43 (11), pp. 2731-2746. ISSN 0143-6597.
- Koram, Kojo (2018) The Vitorian recovery and the (re)turn towards a sacrificial international law. London Review of International Law 6 (3), pp. 443-470. ISSN 2050-6325.
- Koram, Kojo (2017) “Satan is Black” – Frantz Fanon’s juridico-theology of racialisation and damnation. Law, Culture and the Humanities ISSN 1743-8721.
- Koram, Kojo (2017) “Order Is the Best We Can Hope For”: Sicario and the sacrificial violence of the law. Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies In Media and Culture 39 (2), pp. 230-252. ISSN 1522-5321.
Book
- Koram, Kojo Koram, Kojo, ed. (2019) The War on Drugs and the global colour line. Pluto Press. ISBN 9780745338804.
Book Section
- Koram, Kojo and Guardiola-Rivera, Oscar (2024) The war on drugs as a war on the nonhuman. In: Arvidsson, M. and Jones, E. (eds.) International Law and Posthuman Theory. Abingdon, UK and New York, U.S.: Routledge. pp. 244-257. ISBN 9781032044040.
- Koram, Kojo (2019) Drug prohibition and the end of human rights: race, “Evil,” and the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961. In: Wilson, Susannah (ed.) Prohibitions and Psychoactive Substances in History, Culture and Theory. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780367257637.
- Koram, Kojo (2019) Introduction: the war on drugs and the global colour line. In: Koram, Kojo (ed.) The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line. London, UK: Pluto. pp. 1-20. ISBN 9780745338828.
- Koram, Kojo and Guardiola-Rivera, Oscar (2019) The apotheosis of war in Colombia. In: Koram, Kojo (ed.) The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line. London, UK: Pluto Press. ISBN 9780745338804.
Monograph
- Engilbertsson, S. and Zoega, Gylfi Koram, Kojo, ed. (2019) The effect of Brexit on the UK Economy (so far). pp. 1-20. London, UK: Birkbeck, University of London. ISBN 9780745338828. (In Press)