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Historians and the archives of today: the LivArch project and the process of documenting the war in Ukraine

by Ian Kisil Marino

There is a dimension of historians’ work that is often overlooked when considering the nature of our profession: the archive. This reference is not to the traditional concept of the archive as merely the location where historians search for historical sources, but rather to the creation of archives. Today’s digital transformation is shaping the archives that future historians will explore. When observing a critical event of the present time, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine (2022-), it becomes evident that many actors are actively involved in documenting and archiving events of their current times – including historians. The various ways in which these archives take shape are critical to understanding what kinds of histories will be possible to write based on such digital resources. The project “LivArch – Documenting Russia’s War Against Ukraine: The Challenges of Living Archives for Historical Knowledge Production” aims to explore such questions, delving into the impacts of transformation on archival practices and, simultaneously, providing an assessment of the current state of the art in emergency digital preservation. But before introducing the project, I propose to reflect a bit more on the relationship between historians and archives, which has been fundamental to our discipline since its consolidation. „Historians and the archives of today: the LivArch project and the process of documenting the war in Ukraine“ weiterlesen