Documenting the War: Between Ukraine and the World. Presentation of a Collection of Essays and Conversations
18.12.2025, 18:30
Conference Room of the Center for Urban History
We invite you to the presentation of the new publication of the Center for Urban History, Documenting War: Between Ukraine and the World, and the discussion with Inha Kozlova, Terrell Starr, Sasha Dovzhyk, and Natalia Otrishchenko.
Documenting Russian aggression against Ukraine is important not only for preserving Ukrainian experiences of war and resistance for future generations, but also because we are conducting this self-reflection from within the historical process. This position allows us to think of documentation as a translation between the bearers of experiences and those who want to learn about them. Such reflection from within is valuable for both Ukraine and the international community. It is the opposite of the colonial and extractivist vision of documentation, where collecting sources is a practice of extracting resources, while reflection and knowledge production based on these sources takes place somewhere outside.
The collection of essays and interviews Documenting War: Between Ukraine and the World (edited by Sasha Dovzhyk, Taras Nazaruk, and Natalia Otrishchenko) focuses on the refraction of perspective, the (in)materiality of borders, inequality and solidarity, and the practice of transition. The collection is based on the theme of the second annual symposium The Most Documented War: Ethics and Practice of International Cooperation (2024). Its task is to map the specifics of the field in which expertise from inside and outside Ukraine intersects, as well as the various tensions and opportunities that are present in it.
The event will be held in English and Ukrainian with simultaneous interpretation.
Head of INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange and editor-in-chief of the London Ukrainian Review. She holds a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Birkbeck University, has taught at Birkbeck and University College London (UCL SSEES), worked as a special projects curator at the Ukrainian Institute in London, and is the editor of three books. Sociologist, PhD in Sociology, Associate Professor of Sociology and Head of the Sociology Program at the Ukrainian Catholic University. Her research interests include urban sociology and urban studies, the right to the city, the collection and analysis of qualitative sociological data, and internal migration processes related to the Russian war against Ukraine. Researcher and coordinator of oral history projects at the Center for Urban History, PhD in Sociology. In 2019-22, she was affiliated with the Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam, and in 2024-25 she was a UNET researcher at ZOiS. Since March 2022, she has been working in the international documentation initiative “24.02.22, 5 am: Testimonies from the War“. Independent journalist covering the intersection of foreign policy and race. His work outside of Ukraine combines the tools of reportage, social commentary and racial analysis. He publishes his video reports on his YouTube channel “Terrell J. Starr Official” and analytical materials and op-eds in his newsletter on Substack.
Sasha Dovzhyk
INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange 
Inha Kozlova
Ukrainian Catholic University 
Natalia Otrishchenko
Center for Urban History 
Terrell J. Starr
Documenting the War: Between Ukraine and the World continues the series of publications in the "Stories of War: A Series on Documentation and Archiving" cycle, which address various aspects of working in a radically open and threatened moment. This series aims to create a space for joint reflection and search for answers to the challenges and questions that scholars and scientists face in the context of a full-scale war. "Stories of War" is a joint project of the Documenting Ukraine program of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Center for Urban History, INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange, and Research Centre Ukraine of the Max Weber Foundation.
Credits
Cover Image: illustration by Anna Zvyagintseva
