From Rapid Response to a Longitudinal Study of War Experiences

You are invited to attend this lecture by Dr. Natalia Otrishchenko, visiting scholar from Ukraine, presented in collaboration with the Department of Sociology Speaker Series.

In early 2022, Ukrainian scholars faced a need to react rapidly, both personally and professionally, to the unprecedented reality of a full-scale Russian war of aggression. Natalia will speak about the international documentation initiative “24/02/22, 5 am: Testimonies from the War”—an interviewing project that the Center for Urban History (privately founded academic NGO in Lviv, Ukraine) started with research institutions from Poland, Luxembourg, Germany, and the UK.

In 2024, the project entered the second phase: interviewing the same cohort of people whose stories we recorded in 2022. Although the initiative arose under extraordinary circumstances, it is inspired by many traditions: oral history, trauma-informed and feminist scholarship, Indigenous methodologies, and critical archival studies. Natalia will describe how the rapid response documentation turned into the longitudinal project and emphasise that work within protracted uncertainty should include reflection on future scenarios.

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