PhD student Fobazi Ettarh passed away on January 28, 2026. Ettarh entered the doctoral program at the University of Illinois in 2022. She held an MLIS from Rutgers University and bachelor's degree in English and sociology from the University of Delaware. Prior to joining the iSchool, Ettarh served as an academic librarian at Temple University Libraries; California State University, Dominguez Hills; and Rutgers University. She was also a school library media specialist at Hawthorne (NJ) Public Schools.
"We are saddened to learn about the passing of Fobazi," said Interim Dean Emily Knox, who served as Ettarh's advisor. "She was a wonderful person and a brilliant scholar. On behalf of the entire iSchool community, we send our condolences to everyone who knew her."
In Ettarh's own words, her research centered on "the relationships and tensions between the espoused values of librarianship and the realities present in the experiences of marginalized librarians and library users." She is well-known in the LIS field for introducing and defining "vocational awe," which describes, "the set of ideas, values, and assumptions librarians have about themselves and the profession that result in beliefs that libraries as institutions are inherently good and sacred, and therefore beyond critique." Ettarh wrote about this concept in her widely cited article "Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves," describing how vocational awe can lead to burnout and a sense that self-care is less important than the work.
"It is difficult to overstate the impact that Fobazi had on the field of library and information science," said Interim Dean Emily Knox. "Her article on vocational awe appears on almost all of the syllabi for required foundations courses in our School and universities across the country."
Ettarh's work on libraries, labor, and identity has been published in In the Library with the Lead Pipe and edited collections, including the Critical Library Pedagogy Handbook and Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library and Information Studies through Critical Race Theory. She has given invited talks at professional and scholarly conferences and events, including the Library as Place Conference, and keynotes at the Association of College and Research Libraries and Library Journal Directors' Summit. She also created the open-access video game Killing Me Softly: A Game About Microaggressions.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign offers grief counseling for students and for faculty and staff.