Faculty Spotlight: R.H. Lossin on Sabotage, Luddites, Violence, and the Digital Library Dystopia
In episode six of Faculty Spotlight, Mark and Lauren sit down with R.H. Lossin, postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Warren Center of Studies in American History and a leading scholar of the theory and practice of sabotage. The three discuss: what led R.H. to the study of sabotage; why sabotage is more ordinary than you think; R.H.’s beef with the “universal library”—i.e., the total digitization of books; how readers have become producers; why Luddites have a bad rap; the meaning of “capitalist sabotage”; and the violent origins of all private property—among other scintillating subjects.
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Notations
R.H. Lossin, “Against the Universal Library,” New Left Review
R.H. Lossin, “What if environmental damage is a form of capitalist sabotage?” The Washington Post
R.H. Lossin, “On Sabotage,” Verso Books Blog
Andy Battle, R.H. Lossin, “Resisting Distance Learning,” Boston Review
Musical interlude: Unwound, “Kantina”