Mohamed Hussein
@mhusseinlibrarian.bsky.social
Academic and Museum Librarian.
Focus on epistemology, data librarianship, specialised libraries and archives.
Bookish. Music enthusiast. LFC. African/Brazilian culture.
Focus on epistemology, data librarianship, specialised libraries and archives.
Bookish. Music enthusiast. LFC. African/Brazilian culture.
The ideal librarian isn’t a gatekeeper. They’re a conversation catalyst—curious, participatory, radically open. They don’t just “give access”; they co-create knowledge with their community.
Thesis: Giles is a bad librarian - restricting access, rejecting technology, withholding knowledge, upholding hierarchies, exhibiting intellectual elitism - but these failures also create the perfect environment for a revolutionary Freire-inspired dismantling of the oppressive Watchers Council… 😂
April 22, 2025 at 6:40 AM
The ideal librarian isn’t a gatekeeper. They’re a conversation catalyst—curious, participatory, radically open. They don’t just “give access”; they co-create knowledge with their community.
Pope Francis spoke of the poor not as objects of charity, but as bearers of divine knowledge.
May he rest in peace — and may we inherit his refusal to look away.
May he rest in peace — and may we inherit his refusal to look away.
April 21, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Pope Francis spoke of the poor not as objects of charity, but as bearers of divine knowledge.
May he rest in peace — and may we inherit his refusal to look away.
May he rest in peace — and may we inherit his refusal to look away.
So where do we go from here? Rebuild the mythic imagination. Teach novels like sacred texts. Let students enter the labyrinth of story. Because inside, there are mirrors. And minotaurs. And meaning.
There's broad agreement that students aren't reading enough literature. I wrote about Ralph Ellison's approach to teaching American fiction just after Brown v Board. Learning from him might help us think about where to go from here.
libertiesjournal.com/articles/ell...
libertiesjournal.com/articles/ell...
Teaching Ellison - Liberties
In 1955, The American Scholar published a discussion among influential writers and editors titled “What’s Wrong with the American Novel.” In the symposium Ralph Ellison remarked that “I just feel that...
libertiesjournal.com
April 21, 2025 at 2:12 AM
So where do we go from here? Rebuild the mythic imagination. Teach novels like sacred texts. Let students enter the labyrinth of story. Because inside, there are mirrors. And minotaurs. And meaning.
Reposted by Mohamed Hussein
There's broad agreement that students aren't reading enough literature. I wrote about Ralph Ellison's approach to teaching American fiction just after Brown v Board. Learning from him might help us think about where to go from here.
libertiesjournal.com/articles/ell...
libertiesjournal.com/articles/ell...
Teaching Ellison - Liberties
In 1955, The American Scholar published a discussion among influential writers and editors titled “What’s Wrong with the American Novel.” In the symposium Ralph Ellison remarked that “I just feel that...
libertiesjournal.com
October 4, 2024 at 8:43 PM
There's broad agreement that students aren't reading enough literature. I wrote about Ralph Ellison's approach to teaching American fiction just after Brown v Board. Learning from him might help us think about where to go from here.
libertiesjournal.com/articles/ell...
libertiesjournal.com/articles/ell...
Obscurantism isn’t just about hiding facts; it’s about creating a world where questioning becomes too exhausting to bother.
April 20, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Obscurantism isn’t just about hiding facts; it’s about creating a world where questioning becomes too exhausting to bother.
In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Dillard pulls us back to earth. Her materialism is not one of cold facts, but of an engaged witness to the struggle between beauty and brutality, the sacredness in decay.
April 19, 2025 at 5:13 AM
In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Dillard pulls us back to earth. Her materialism is not one of cold facts, but of an engaged witness to the struggle between beauty and brutality, the sacredness in decay.
The decline of philology begins in the late 19th century, when it splintered into specialized disciplines: linguistics, literary studies, anthropology. Its holistic methodology was seen as imprecise in the emerging positivist academy.
April 19, 2025 at 5:09 AM
The decline of philology begins in the late 19th century, when it splintered into specialized disciplines: linguistics, literary studies, anthropology. Its holistic methodology was seen as imprecise in the emerging positivist academy.
PEN International speaks of freedom, but who will speak of slow decay? Of the forgotten scripts, the orphaned dialects?
April 19, 2025 at 5:04 AM
PEN International speaks of freedom, but who will speak of slow decay? Of the forgotten scripts, the orphaned dialects?
When knowledge is framed as a threat, surveillance becomes pedagogy.
What’s at stake isn’t one institution—it’s the soul of higher education itself.
What’s at stake isn’t one institution—it’s the soul of higher education itself.
It's official: students on my campus have had their visas revoked. I've heard reports of plainclothes agents. Even at this "apolitical," STEM-focused institution, my students and colleagues are not safe. Ideas about what I can do? My job is contingent but I've got plenty of privilege.
April 18, 2025 at 4:49 PM
When knowledge is framed as a threat, surveillance becomes pedagogy.
What’s at stake isn’t one institution—it’s the soul of higher education itself.
What’s at stake isn’t one institution—it’s the soul of higher education itself.
Anne Carson’s Nox redefines elegy through fragmentation, lexicon, and palimpsest.
It resists closure, memorializing grief as a living, destabilized archive.
Few American texts articulate mourning with such epistemological finesse.
It resists closure, memorializing grief as a living, destabilized archive.
Few American texts articulate mourning with such epistemological finesse.
April 18, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Anne Carson’s Nox redefines elegy through fragmentation, lexicon, and palimpsest.
It resists closure, memorializing grief as a living, destabilized archive.
Few American texts articulate mourning with such epistemological finesse.
It resists closure, memorializing grief as a living, destabilized archive.
Few American texts articulate mourning with such epistemological finesse.
We must reject the narrative that libraries are “nice extras.” They are critical infrastructure for democracy, literacy, and justice. Framing them as social infrastructure (à la Eric Klinenberg) gives us leverage to demand proper investment.
"“You don’t get paid enough to meet your basic needs. Your autonomy at work is consistently under threat. People who think that they know better how to do your job are trying to get the power to push you out of your position,” @edrabinski.bsky.social said."
📚
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
📚
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Being a librarian was already hard. Then came the Trump administration
Already facing burnout and book bans, librarians face a ‘catastrophe’ for institutions deemed central to democracy
www.theguardian.com
April 17, 2025 at 7:46 AM
We must reject the narrative that libraries are “nice extras.” They are critical infrastructure for democracy, literacy, and justice. Framing them as social infrastructure (à la Eric Klinenberg) gives us leverage to demand proper investment.
Reposted by Mohamed Hussein
"“You don’t get paid enough to meet your basic needs. Your autonomy at work is consistently under threat. People who think that they know better how to do your job are trying to get the power to push you out of your position,” @edrabinski.bsky.social said."
📚
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
📚
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Being a librarian was already hard. Then came the Trump administration
Already facing burnout and book bans, librarians face a ‘catastrophe’ for institutions deemed central to democracy
www.theguardian.com
April 16, 2025 at 12:29 PM
"“You don’t get paid enough to meet your basic needs. Your autonomy at work is consistently under threat. People who think that they know better how to do your job are trying to get the power to push you out of your position,” @edrabinski.bsky.social said."
📚
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
📚
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Mbembe: “Necropolitics is the power to dictate who may live and who must die.”
April 16, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Mbembe: “Necropolitics is the power to dictate who may live and who must die.”
Reposted by Mohamed Hussein
It really is the final form of capitalism that we wake up every morning to be subjected to the innermost banalities of the world’s wealthiest-ever human being. Never before in human history have so many had to look at so little.
April 16, 2025 at 7:30 AM
It really is the final form of capitalism that we wake up every morning to be subjected to the innermost banalities of the world’s wealthiest-ever human being. Never before in human history have so many had to look at so little.
China rewards discipline and strategic investment.
The U.S. rewards quarterly profits, dopamine hits, and clickbait.
The U.S. rewards quarterly profits, dopamine hits, and clickbait.
Karoline Leavitt, "China needs to make a deal with us, we don't have to make a deal with them"
"China wants what we have, what every country wants, what we have, the American consumer"
"Or to put it another way they need our money"
"China wants what we have, what every country wants, what we have, the American consumer"
"Or to put it another way they need our money"
April 16, 2025 at 8:48 AM
China rewards discipline and strategic investment.
The U.S. rewards quarterly profits, dopamine hits, and clickbait.
The U.S. rewards quarterly profits, dopamine hits, and clickbait.
Reposted by Mohamed Hussein
As a citizen of an imperial nation, that, with Brexit, had its own unforced implosion: I think the thing that will hurt Americans most in the end isn’t the mockery, it’s the indifference as people move on from you.
“We are the world’s laughing stock!”
“No. They’re not even thinking about us.”
“We are the world’s laughing stock!”
“No. They’re not even thinking about us.”
April 16, 2025 at 7:46 AM
As a citizen of an imperial nation, that, with Brexit, had its own unforced implosion: I think the thing that will hurt Americans most in the end isn’t the mockery, it’s the indifference as people move on from you.
“We are the world’s laughing stock!”
“No. They’re not even thinking about us.”
“We are the world’s laughing stock!”
“No. They’re not even thinking about us.”
They’ve made distraction the opiate, and called it “news.”
Meanwhile, they extract the marrow of the planet, quietly, efficiently.
This is not incompetence.
It’s choreography.
Meanwhile, they extract the marrow of the planet, quietly, efficiently.
This is not incompetence.
It’s choreography.
April 16, 2025 at 6:34 AM
They’ve made distraction the opiate, and called it “news.”
Meanwhile, they extract the marrow of the planet, quietly, efficiently.
This is not incompetence.
It’s choreography.
Meanwhile, they extract the marrow of the planet, quietly, efficiently.
This is not incompetence.
It’s choreography.
You don’t need censorship when saturation works better.
The 24/7 feed on one corrupt regime drowns everything else.
The true goal might not be justice, but cover—
so they can drill that last seabed, mine the last breath of earth.
The 24/7 feed on one corrupt regime drowns everything else.
The true goal might not be justice, but cover—
so they can drill that last seabed, mine the last breath of earth.
April 16, 2025 at 6:33 AM
You don’t need censorship when saturation works better.
The 24/7 feed on one corrupt regime drowns everything else.
The true goal might not be justice, but cover—
so they can drill that last seabed, mine the last breath of earth.
The 24/7 feed on one corrupt regime drowns everything else.
The true goal might not be justice, but cover—
so they can drill that last seabed, mine the last breath of earth.
Ecology is now an afterthought.
Climate collapse gets a sidebar.
The real theft isn’t just oil or lithium—
It’s attention.
And with it, time.
Time for the powerful to finish the job in peace.
Climate collapse gets a sidebar.
The real theft isn’t just oil or lithium—
It’s attention.
And with it, time.
Time for the powerful to finish the job in peace.
April 16, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Ecology is now an afterthought.
Climate collapse gets a sidebar.
The real theft isn’t just oil or lithium—
It’s attention.
And with it, time.
Time for the powerful to finish the job in peace.
Climate collapse gets a sidebar.
The real theft isn’t just oil or lithium—
It’s attention.
And with it, time.
Time for the powerful to finish the job in peace.
Distraction isn’t mere confusion—it’s structural sabotage. That’s how power keeps you: sweating in the unnameable.
April 15, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Distraction isn’t mere confusion—it’s structural sabotage. That’s how power keeps you: sweating in the unnameable.
Reposted by Mohamed Hussein
guess distraction is the point. to get us to the point of not being able to do what we meant to do. paraphrasing toni morrison for times under trump and the global far right.
April 15, 2025 at 6:31 PM
guess distraction is the point. to get us to the point of not being able to do what we meant to do. paraphrasing toni morrison for times under trump and the global far right.
Reposted by Mohamed Hussein
The fact that this is being perpetrated by the worst students in class—the guys who snicker in the back of the room because they’re too arrogant to recognize their own ignorance—really adds insult to injury. I’ve spent a career training myself to be openhearted with them, as an ethical principle.
April 15, 2025 at 2:13 PM
The fact that this is being perpetrated by the worst students in class—the guys who snicker in the back of the room because they’re too arrogant to recognize their own ignorance—really adds insult to injury. I’ve spent a career training myself to be openhearted with them, as an ethical principle.
Choosing symbolic alliances over strategic ones is a symptom of what policy scholars call the post-policy age: optics over outcomes.
The US would be better off being allies with Canada than with El Salvador.
Canada has a bigger economy, a stronger military, more land—including Arctic access—a long border with the US, good values, and a history of mutually beneficial cooperation.
Sorry to get so partisan, but that's how I feel.
Canada has a bigger economy, a stronger military, more land—including Arctic access—a long border with the US, good values, and a history of mutually beneficial cooperation.
Sorry to get so partisan, but that's how I feel.
April 15, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Choosing symbolic alliances over strategic ones is a symptom of what policy scholars call the post-policy age: optics over outcomes.
In the past, exposure took whistleblowers. Now it takes code and algorithms. AI will comb the 4chan leak, connecting usernames to Reddit, LinkedIn, Venmo, Steam. Digital masks are paper-thin in 2025.
4Chan was hacked, its source code was leaked, admin emails were leaked, AND a lot of registered users used their real names and .edu email addresses. Lotta CHUDs getting exposed to sunlight today.
April 15, 2025 at 3:08 PM
In the past, exposure took whistleblowers. Now it takes code and algorithms. AI will comb the 4chan leak, connecting usernames to Reddit, LinkedIn, Venmo, Steam. Digital masks are paper-thin in 2025.
Sociologists call it climate dissonance: we know the planet’s burning, but we glamorize tech escapes instead of facing our complicity. Emily’s critique isn’t superficial—it’s a call-out of deep cognitive detachment. Read Kari Marie Norgaard.
Emily Ratajkowski criticizes the Blue Origin space launch in new video:
“You are going up in a space ship that is built and paid for by a company that is single-handedly destroying the planet.”
“You are going up in a space ship that is built and paid for by a company that is single-handedly destroying the planet.”
April 15, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Sociologists call it climate dissonance: we know the planet’s burning, but we glamorize tech escapes instead of facing our complicity. Emily’s critique isn’t superficial—it’s a call-out of deep cognitive detachment. Read Kari Marie Norgaard.