The Most Documented War: Ethics and Practice of International Collaborations

Along with the experience of Russia's full-scale invasion, for many Ukrainians, the experience of international contacts has increased in the form of supportive calls and messages, invitations and trips abroad, organisation of volunteer assistance, wide media attention, etc. The forced migration also acquired a cross-border dimension because many people have to leave their homes and seek safety in the countries of the European Union and beyond.

Documentation of the war also became international from the very beginning. Already established professional collaborations and private friendships became more active with offers of support and project organisation. New situational contacts and collaborative long-term initiatives emerged even more frequently, as did new support programs, grant funding, and fundraising opportunities, as well as expedition trips that combined documentation with volunteering. New institutions, digital environments, and publications in media and academic publishing houses have been established.

The collaborative work of documenting and creating war archives faces several challenges and opportunities at all levels, from practical documentation to forming visions of the future.

• First and foremost, international collaborations imply mobility challenges. Who can come to Ukraine, and who can go abroad? What is the movement within the country like? What kind of expeditions are possible in the war zone or the de-occupied territories?
• International collaborations concern the coordination of different legal and administrative frameworks. How does data storage and transfer function under the GDPR? How can international criminal law use the evidence collected? How can Ukrainian projects apply for grants in other countries? What challenges do projects face when transferring funds internationally? What is the reporting process like?
• International collaborations problematise knowledge production. What challenges and opportunities does the emotional (dis)involvement of participants expose? What is the epistemological value of participants' emotions? Who makes decisions in such projects? What language do they employ? How is their methodological framework formed? Who owns the results of this work?
• Ultimately, international collaborations are about professional everyday life: how do they address security threats or day-to-day difficulties? How do you reconcile different modes of work and expectations of results?

We continue the symposium "The Most Documented War" launched in 2023 to gather initiatives that collect and archive materials about the Russian-Ukrainian war.

This year's focus is on the ethics and practices of international collaborations as one of the key dimensions of the functioning of war documentation and the long-term effects. We propose to reflect together on several topics: how such international collaborations emerged and developed; who joined the war documentation; what are the long-term goals of the collaborations; what facilitates and complicates the cooperation; how knowledge about the Russian aggression in Ukraine is produced and what policies emerge/may emerge from this knowledge in the international dimension.

Organisers:

• Center for Urban History, Lviv
• Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna
• INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange, Lviv

Partners:

Center for Governance and Culture in Europe, University of St. Gallen; Ukraine War Archive; СERCEC / EHESS, Paris; LivArch / Herder-Institute; The Virtual Ukraine Institute for Advanced Study (VUIAS); Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group; Jam Factory Art Center; Suspilne. Kultura

Program Committee of the Symposium 2024:

Sasha Dovzhyk, Taras Nazaruk, Natalia Otrishchenko

Organisational Team:

‍Victoria Panas, producing; Sofia Andrusyshyn, coordination and logistical support; Maryana Mazurak, Yelyzaveta Bobrova, communication support; Oleksandr Dmytriev, Tetiana Dutko, Oleksandr Korman, technical support; Yaryna Paniv, Tetiana Figel, financial support.