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On April 16-17, the international workshop “War and the historian's view. How life during a disaster shapes our understanding of the past” was held in Dnipro. Its purpose was to bring together historians and anthropologists to discuss the impact of the experience of war on us as professionals, our professional community, and our understanding of the past. After all, the modern Russian-Ukrainian war has become the largest conflict in Europe since the end of World War II, and Ukrainian researchers have found themselves in different roles – soldiers on the front lines, bystanders, and refugees. However, regardless of the specific role, experiencing and observing war affects researchers, particularly historians, as professionals.

The work of the workshop took place on several main panels: “Anthropology of war and empathy of the researcher”, “War and the community of historians”, “Knowledge about the past and modern war”. The participants in offline and online formats discussed several important topical issues: what questions about the past does modernity provoke? How does our own experience reflect on us as professionals? How does the war experience change our methodology and understanding of the past? and other.

The workshop program included key lectures: prof. of the European University of Viadrina (Frankfurt-on-Oder) Andriy Portnov (“War and us. Some observations on the historical profession in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war”) and the Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance Dr. Volodymyr Tylishchak (“National Remembrance and challenges of war”).

Among the reports that were heard during the two days of the conference, there were, in particular, the following: “Autoethnography as a method of decolonization: living the war” (Julia Buyskikh, University of Cork, German Historical Institute, Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw); “Exploring perceptions of World War II through the prism of the Russian-Ukrainian war” (Denys Shatalov, 2023/2024 Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies Sofia, Kryvyi Rih – Sofia); “Changes in public history in Ukraine before and after 24.02.22: an outside view” (Ursula Ulli, Ukrainian Institute, London); “Museification of war and genocide against the background of personal living experience: opportunities for knowledge or threat to objectivity”, “Micro-historical plots for understanding and teaching the history of the Holocaust” (Yehor Vradii, “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies, Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”, Dnipro); “The phenomenon of Ukrainian Righteous Among the Nations in the context of the modern Russian-Ukrainian war” (Igor Shchupak, “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies, International Council of Auschwitz, Dnipro – Warsaw); “Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi: spiritual solutions to social problems during the war” (Myroslav Marynovych, Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv) and other equally interesting studies.

As part of the workshop, a round table for Ukrainian history teachers and methodologists “Historical memory of war and modern war” and an open discussion “Holocaust and lessons of history” were held.

The video recording of the workshop will be available for viewing on “Tkuma” Institute YouTube channel.

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