Book Series "Stories of War: A Series on Documenting and Archiving"

Conceived as an ongoing collective effort, “Stories of War: A Series on Documenting and Archiving” examines the processes that shape war archives and narratives. Across diverse formats—interviews, essays, sources, and artworks—the books in the series rethink practices of storymaking and challenge hierarchies of theorizing and documenting, foregrounding the ethical and practical complexities of creating sources and archives in times of war. Taking Ukraine under Russian attack as its point of departure, the series fosters multi-vocal conversations across disciplines and geographies about the responsibilities—and limits—of wartime documenting and archiving.

The series started in 2024 with the collection of interviews, Conversations with Those Who Ask about War. The book is based on interviews with researchers and activists who document the reality of Russia's war against Ukraine by speaking with eyewitnesses. The idea of documenting the experiences of those who collect testimonies arose from the understanding that many of our formal and informal conversations remain off-frame, and we have nothing to build the durability of academic thought on. The book's format—dialogic, polyphonic—is a gesture of gratitude for the numerous conversations that helped many of us in the first months after the full-scale invasion. In 2026, the English translation of this book will be published by transcript Verlag.

In 2025, the second book, Documenting the War: Between Ukraine and the World, was completed. The collection of essays and interviews (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 mediation related to international collaboration in the field of war documentation. The collection is based on the theme of the second annual symposium, The Most Documented War: Ethics and Practice of International Cooperation (2024), and it includes voices of scholars, journalists, curators, culture managers, lawyers, and artists.

The third book, which continues the conversations and ideas that emerged during the third symposium, The Most Documented War: Enacting Archives, is planned for release in 2026. Its authors—archivists, historians, sociologists, journalists, human rights activists, artists and photographers—will critically approach the use of archives in different geographical and temporal contexts. In search of answers to the questions of what an archive of war is and how it could be created and curated, they will draw attention to the practices of preserving and using records, their potential for achieving justice, producing knowledge and shaping collective memory.  This edition will also focus on community archiving and activist practices, as well as the legal and ethical challenges of providing access.

"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.