In June, our project leader, Professor Dr. Ger Duijzings, participated in the Symposium for Documentation and Archiving Initiatives, organised by the Center for Urban History, Lviv, and several partner institutions from Ukraine and abroad. He was subsequently interviewed by DU – the Center for Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies “Denkraum Ukraine” at the University of Regensburg.
In the interview, Ger Duijzings draws parallels between the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the ongoing war in Ukraine, noting how both involved a hegemonic power seeking territorial conquest at devastating human cost. He discusses how digital media and smartphones have transformed war documentation compared to the television-driven coverage of the Balkan conflicts, offering a more direct, “democratized” view of wartime life. Duijzings also shares insights from his research on the role of “dark emotions”: resentment, hatred, envy, in fueling and justifying conflict, and describes his impressions from the symposium, where he was struck by researchers’ resilience and an open debating culture. He closes with a reflection on emerging memorial culture in Ukraine, particularly the deeply personalized graves he observed at Lviv’s Field of Mars military cemetery.
