On 8th May, the Institut für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südosteuropas an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (IKGS), together with the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies (University of Vienna), the Research Centre for the History of Transformations (RECET), the Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University and international institutions, organised a symposium consisting of two lecture panels and a round table, at which the central challenges for the humanities posed by the war in Ukraine were presented and discussed.

February 2022 - Russian troops invade Ukraine. The Russian-Ukrainian war not only has catastrophic humanitarian consequences, but also affects the humanities and social sciences. The symposium presented and discussed the key challenges that the war in Ukraine poses for the humanities at the level of cultural heritage protection and humanitarian aid.

Taking the Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, whose main building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as a starting point, questions of digital transformation in cultural heritage protection, humanitarian and civil society engagement based on academic networks, and the positioning of researchers in the public discourse on the war in Ukraine were discussed. 

The focus was on aspects of a common Central European cultural heritage, the performance and adaptability of academic networks and professional academic communication.

Listen to the recording of Dr Anna Maria Kaiser's presentation 'Risk management for cultural property' from the second panel of the symposium, in which she gives a general overview of the challenges for cultural property, not only at the level of armed conflict, but also of possible preparation and prevention strategies in the pre-disaster phase.

The language of the presentation is German.

Recordings of all symposium presentations and the roundtable discussion are available on the IKGS YouTube channel.