LivArch Fellowships in War Documentation and Archiving

The purpose of the LivArch Short-Term Fellowship is to jointly explore how living archives influence historical research methodology. Projects may include, but are not limited to: research, documentation, technical or methodological recommendations. The scholarship is available for up to three months, both with a stay at the Center for Urban History in Lviv and in a remote format.

Description of the scholarship

Russia's war against Ukraine can be seen as the most documented violent conflict in history. Future historical research will rely heavily on a wide range of digital sources that are created and collected primarily through the efforts of grassroots organizations. These include such diverse resources as social media posts, chats, videos, photographs, oral testimonies, digitized analog materials, or even geo-referenced satellite data.

Bringing together emergency documentation and archiving "today" ("living archives") and making these materials accessible to researchers and scholars, contributing to justice and commemorating victims, requires conceptual, legal, and ethical reflections, as well as technical infrastructure. "Living archives require discussions about metadata standards, principles of collecting and processing sensitive data, and the development of sustainable practices for long-term archiving.

The LivArch Consortium Fellowship is designed to support people who create and research archives about Russia's war against Ukraine. Whether you are collecting your own sources and/or research data and need help preparing them for publication, sharing your knowledge with various initiatives, or conducting meta-level research on living archives, we invite you to apply.

What LivArch offers

Participants will receive a scholarship of €1,000 per month. The possible duration is from one to three months during 2025. The scholarship is available both with a stay at the Center for Urban History in Lviv and in a remote or combined format.

During this period, the fellows will work independently on their research projects and will have the opportunity to consult with the Center's team and jointly establish professional contacts with the community, as well as participate in LivArch consortium events. As part of the scholarship, we expect a presentation of the scholarship holders' projects during an urban seminar or public event at the Center.

Who can apply

Civil society activists, master's students, doctoral students, postdocs, museum workers, librarians, archivists, employees of universities and research institutions, as well as independent scholars are eligible to apply.

 Possible research topics:

• mapping the field of documentation and archiving initiatives in the context of the war in Ukraine;
• ethics and practice of implementing oral history projects in wartime;
• technical and ethical challenges of archiving web pages and social networks;
• research methodology for digital archives;
• sustainability of archiving in emergency situations;
• accessibility and use of documented sources.

We welcome applications in Ukrainian or English by April 28, 2025.

Your application should include:

• a description of your [research] project of up to 1800 characters;
• a motivation letter containing information about the compatibility of your research with the LivArch project and the desired partner institution; up to 1800 characters including spaces;
• a short resume, up to 2 pages;

Please send all application materials in one PDF document to the following email address: grants@lvivcenter.org, with "LivArch War Documentation and Archiving Fellowship" in the subject line. 

The Documenting Russia's War on Ukraine (LivArch) project aims to improve methods and theories for collecting, preserving, and enriching digital sources while working on complex ethical issues related to responsible representation, publication, reuse, and long-term archiving. The main focus is on empowering projects and people who create and manage such sources. The project promotes equal cooperation across national borders, disciplinary boundaries, traditional research, and participatory approaches through scholarships and exchange formats. LivArch is a joint project of partner organizations:

• The Herder Institute for Historical Research in East Central Europe of the Leibniz Society in Marburg, Germany;
• Leibniz Institute for European History in Mainz (Germany);
• Center for Urban History (Ukraine);
• Luxembourg Center for Contemporary and Digital History (Luxembourg);
• Marburg Center for Digital Culture and Infrastructure (Germany);
• Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (USA).