Distance and emotion: Ukrainian historians in war times

Geschichte ist Gegenwart! Der History & Politics Podcast der Körber-Stiftung

  • 53 min.
  • 65. episode

February 2024 marks a sad anniversary: We are two years into the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine. Documenting this war has been a critical issue since the beginning. In our latest podcast episode, we talked to Sofia Dyak, who works and lives in Lviv, about the consequences for historians: Where and how can Ukrainian historians currently make a meaningful contribution collecting testimonies about everyday life in times of occupation and armed conflict? How is it possible for them to separate between academic distance and emotional involvement? And to what kind of post-war justice can historians contribute in Ukraine while the war is still unfolding?

Information about our guest and her work:

About Sofia Dyak

Center for Urban History in Lviv

Interview with Sofia Dyak from 2020: "These days, I am thinking about Lviv in 1939"

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„Especially in the context when a researcher and a respondent share so much but also have differences in the position and in the situation, it also shows how you know academia doesn’t have to be detached from life. It actually can be also something which is an act of solidarity, of coping, of helping and really you know of being embedded in the social reality that you are part of. One has to admit and has to reflect that. It probably also changes the way you write.“

Sofia Dyak

Historikerin

Artwork: Geschichte ist Gegenwart! Der History & Politics Podcast der Körber-Stiftung

Geschichte ist Gegenwart! Der History & Politics Podcast der Körber-Stiftung

Warum Geschichte immer Gegenwart ist, besprechen wir mit unseren Gästen im History & Politics Podcast. Wir zeigen, wie uns die Geschichte hilft, die Gegenwart besser zu verstehen.

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