The Workshop
The Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG), along with members of the research consortium “LivArch - Documenting Russia’s war against Ukraine: The challenges of living archives for historical knowledge production” are happy to introduce the 2nd IEG LivArch Workshop, which focuses on Sensitivities, Trauma, and Sociability.
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has triggered an unprecedented effort to digitally document the war, creating a complex ecosystem of archives that capture everything from battlefield evidence to the profound shifts in everyday life. This reality presents a critical ethical challenge: how to balance the urgent duty to document with the moral imperative to protect those involved from re-traumatization.
The second edition of the IEG LivArch Workshop explores this challenge, weighing the dual responsibility archival projects have: a duty of care for staff, volunteers, and contributors – who may be handling traumatic content without professional training – and a duty to users and future scholarship. In this sense, some of the topics that the workshop discusses include: the role of social media in psychological and informational warfare; mental health of the population under conditions that combine persistent violence and destruction with constant information (and disinformation) consumption; forms of sociability and collaborative work in documenting such traumatic experiences; and the shape of collective memory in contexts that involve the interaction of multiple actors – such as scholars, activists, and digital media algorithms.
Counting with specialists and representatives from leading Ukrainian archival initiatives, the workshop aims to make progress in providing answers on how to build and manage these vital digital repositories in an ethical, responsible, and sensitive way that actively fosters the resilience of all participants – understanding that such archives are not only records of violence but also promising sites of collective encounters and sources for understanding the war’s impact on everyday life and mentalities.
Program
10:00 – Onboarding
Speakers:
10:20-12:15 - Session 1: Sensitivities in the archive
Summary: This session explores how sensitive topics permeate the collections of archives that have been created in the context of the war in Ukraine. The session not only looks at records that express forms of fear, uncertainty, grief, and trauma, but also sheds light on the very act of archiving as a way of dealing with such sensitivities in potentially healing and participatory ways.
Speakers:
Moderator:
12:15-13:15 – Lunch break
13:15-14:45 – Session 2: Methods of Counteracting Disinformation in the Context of War
Summary: Counteracting disinformation during wartime requires a comprehensive and multilayered approach. Key methods include the creation of transparent communication channels, timely dissemination of verified information, and cooperation between government institutions, media, and civil society. · The role of social media in psychological and informational warfare · The mental health of the population under conditions of constant information consumption · An information campaign of NGOs aimed at documenting the war crimes and countering fakes: participation of the population
Speakers:
Moderator:
14:45-15:00 – Coffee break
15:00-16:30 – Session 3: Documenting Destruction and Resilience: Ethical War Archiving and Collective Memory in Ukraine
Summary: The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has produced an extraordinary surge in efforts to digitally document the war, capturing both large-scale destruction and the everyday experiences of affected communities. This workshop examines how archival initiatives can responsibly preserve this material while supporting the resilience of those who create, curate, and contribute to these records. Bringing together specialists from major Ukrainian documentation projects, the workshop will focus on: · Oral history and collective memory: recording trauma, preserving everyday experiences, and tracing emerging forms of community and national resilience; · The destruction of academic and cultural infrastructure: challenges for researchers, archivists, and institutions working under war conditions; · Urban destruction and digital documentation: mapping damage to infrastructures and cities, and understanding how such records shape collective memory and urban resilience; · Legal and reconstruction perspectives: the role of digital archives in post-war justice, damage assessment, and evidence-based rebuilding, including the use of digital modeling and computational methods. Grounded in insights from close work with local people from affected by the ongoing war cities, the workshop highlights how ethical documentation practices can serve as tools not only for preserving memory but also for supporting Ukraine’s long-term recovery, reconstruction, and healing.
Speakers:
Moderator:
16:45-17:00 – Closing thoughts
Speaker:
Concept and workshop organisation (in alphabetical order)
Iuliia Iashchenko IEG
Ian Marino IEG / Federal University of Juiz de Fora
Thorsten Wübbena IEG
Olesia ZvezdovaIEG IEG
Contact
digital@ieg-mainz.de
