Writing History in Historic Times

Episode 368

with Omar Mohammed

narrated by Sam Dolbee

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What does it mean to study the past in the midst of momentous change in the present? In this special episode, we discuss history and history-in-the-making with Omar Mohammed, a scholar and activist from Mosul. For several years, Omar was an undercover chronicler of ISIS through the blog and Facebook group Mosul Eye. Currently, he is working on a Ph.D. project about the history and historiography of Mosul in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We examine the connections between the two endeavors, all the while exploring modern Iraqi history and, with it, colonialism, nationalism, regional connections, and everyday life.

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Contributor Bios

	Omar Mohammed is a scholar and activist from Mosul, Iraq. He has a master’s degree in history from University of Mosul, and is currently working on a PhD in Europe on Mosuli history and identity in the nineteenth and twentieth century. For several years, he has operated the blog Mosul Eye. He has been selected as a Yale World Fellow for 2018.
	Sam Dolbee completed his Ph.D. in 2017 at New York University. His book project is an environmental history of the Jazira region in the late Ottoman period and its aftermath. In 2018-2019, he will be a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Mahindra Humanities Center.

Credits

Episode No. 368
Release Date: 26 July 2018
Recording Location: Paris, France
Interview recording by Chris Gratien
Script and audio editing by Sam Dolbee
Music by Zé Trigueiros, and the songs are "Sombra," "Petite Route," "Chiaroscuro," "Fast," and "Big Road of Burravoe." The music is used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike-License, and has in some cases been modified from its original. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Z_Trigueiros/

Select Bibliography

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