Facing Violence: When and Why to Document War Experiences?

We invite you to the discussion "Facing Violence: When and Why to Document War Experiences?"

At this very moment Ukrainian cities are being shelled by Russian bombs. Mariupol has been almost completely ruined. Within two months thousands of civilians have been killed. More than five million Ukrainias have left Ukraine to find a shelter. Many more have been displaced inside Ukraine. None of these know when they will be able to go back home. The discussion focuses on the practice of witnessing and documenting war. How can we draw on historical experiences and lessons from documenting experiences of violence and warfare? How does the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine change our understanding of the history of the region and beyond and update historical experiences of documenting the war? The roundtable will reference existing historical sources of wars of the twentieth century to raise questions about the production of knowledge in extreme circumstances. Such contextualization can help us to explore the question of choice in the process of creating and preserving documents, the way in which these processes amplify some voices while silencing others.

In the discussion will participate:

• Natalia Aleksiun, University of Florida
• Sofia Dyak, Center for Urban History
• Machteld Venken, University of Luxembourg
• Anna Wylegala, Polish Academy of Science

Moderator: Felix Ackermann

In order to participate online (Zoom), please register per email to [email protected]. 

Event within the public program on documenting experiences of violence and warfare "Source as a Choice" organized by the Center for Urban History in cooperation with EHRI and in partnership with Fordham University and workshop "Witnessing the Now: Challenges for Emergency Archiving and Oral History following the Russian Invasion of Ukraine" held by German Historical Institute Warsaw in the frame of the project "24.02.22, 5 am: Testimonies from the War." 

Credits

Cover Image: George Ivanchenko, Borodyanka, 2022 // Urban Media Archive of the Center for Urban History