Omar Mohammed, the blogger Mosul Eye, "I have been working on this for around 5 months, thankfully I succeeded in convincing an American historian to visit Mosul University, Center of Orientalism Studies to give some lectures there, this gonna be my first step for more connection with western academics. more details soon." He adds a photo from the campus. "This is our small center which we had to shut it down when ISIS occupied Mosul then it was partly damaged during the battle, but before that we had quite some seminars, we also invited Arthur Goldschmidt Professor Emeritus of Middle East History at Penn State University."
He adds an open invitation. "Dear scholars of middle East and Arabic studies if you are interested to visit Mosul University just DM we can organize something together. An open invitation."
Mohammed blogged and tweeted as "Mosul Eye" during the conflict with ISIS. He writes that he "set out to inform the world about life under the Islamic State in his city. His focus has now shifted to advocacy of social initiatives for the people of Mosul including the international effort to re-supply Central Library of the University of Mosul. At the intersection of media, academia and civil society, Omar is motivated to develop new networks of collaboration and innovations in humanitarian action. As a historian and lecturer at the University of Mosul, he focuses his scholarly work on conceptual history and research dealing with local historiographies and narratives, micro histories and Orientalism. Omar is a regular media commentator on Iraq, has an MA in Middle East History from the University of Mosul, and was named 2013 Researcher of the Year by Iraq’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. His doctoral research explores history and historians in 19th and 20th century Mosul. He now lives in exile in Europe."
He hopes that western academics will visit Mosul and help it re-connect to the rest of the world. "Mosul has long been isolated from its regional and global environment, now is the time to globalize Mosul."