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Online Conference and Data Sprint: Witnessing and Justice in Data-Based Research

31 March - 01 April, 2026, online

As part of an ongoing collaboration between the “War Sensing” project (European University Viadrina/CRC “Media of Cooperation”) , the Telegram Archive of the War (Center for Urban History, Lviv) and the School of Communications/Conflict Institute (Dublin City University), we are organising a 1,5 day conference and online data sprint, which is scheduled for 31 March (full day) and 1 April (evening).

The second collaborative data sprint builds on the hybrid conference and data sprint, “War Sensing through the Telegram Archive of the War”, that was organised by the “War Sensing” project (European University Viadrina/CRC “Media of Cooperation”) and the “Telegram Archive of the War” (Center for Urban History, Lviv) in 2025. You can find more information about the previous data sprint here.

At the upcoming conference and data sprint, “Witnessing and Justice in Data-Based Research”, we will reflect upon the practices and limits of war-related research based on digital, archived and other types of data. The urgent question here is how to address the ongoing tension between such data-based research of war and the injustices that persist. Despite the large volume of data and the variety of ways in which Russia’s war in Ukraine has been documented, represented and analysed in order to expose its unjust nature and practices, the destruction and attacks against Ukraine persist. Data-based investigations using “data for the good” (cf. Williams, 2022; Kazansky et al., 2019) form a small part of achieving transitional justice and maintain hope and demand accountability by using digitally derived evidence of war injustices and crimes. (How) do digital data archives and data-based investigations continue to counter war-related injustices, and what approaches have proved as successful? What are the various limitations of digital data-based witnessing of war in terms of experiential, juridical, political and other nature? How can the tension between the investigations and ongoing injustices tell us about the role and impact of contemporary war witnessing?  

The event consists of two sessions that are open for the general public. The first open session takes place on the morning of 31 March and features a keynote talk by Oksana Avramenko, followed by a roundtable discussion with Jelnar Ahmad, Karina Buhaichenko, Yevheniia Drozdova, Oleksiy Radynski and Bohdan Shumylovych. The second session, which is also open to the public, will take place in the evening on 1 April and will consist of a roundtable discussion with Jenna Dolecek, Kaja Kowalczewska and Maryna Slobodyanuk. This will be followed by a screening of the film “A Home for Rita”, after which there will be a Q&A session with the director, Yulia Appen, and Sashko Protyah from the Freefilmers collective.

The event will also consist of a half-day closed data sprint on 31 March, during which participants from the previous data sprint will discuss their ongoing hands-on work with the Telegram Archive’s data. Due to the sensitive and ongoing nature of the research, this part will only be open to previous data sprint participants. How did these collaborations continue their work, and what are their future research plans? Which role did the Telegram Archive of the War play in their research projects? What results did the bottom-up research collaborations formed during the first data sprint produce? What are the main ethical and other challenges?

The detailed programme outline can be found below. The final programme, including the Zoom links, will be sent to registered participants. 

To register, please send a short email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 29 March, expressing your interest to join the public programme.

On behalf of the CRC Media of Cooperation and the project teams “War Sensing” (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) with Prof. Dr. Miglė Bareikytė, Johanna Hiebl and Gregor Wörl, the Telegram Archive of the War (Center for Urban History, Lviv) with Oksana Avramenko and Maryana Mazurak and School of Communication (Dublin City University) with Prof. Dr. Tanya Lokot 

Programme

DAY 1, 31.03.2026

PUBLIC PROGRAMME:

Keynote lecture, 09:00-10:00 Dublin/10:00-11:00 Frankfurt (Oder)/11.00-12.00 Lviv

Granting Access to War: Ethics and Accountability in the TG Archive

by Oksana Avramenko (Center for Urban History, Lviv), moderated by Prof. Dr. Tanya Lokot (DCU)

Break, 10:00-10:30 Dublin/11:00-11:30 Frankfurt (Oder)/12:00-12:30 Lviv

Roundtable, 10:30-12:30 Dublin/11:30-13:30 Frankfurt (Oder)/12.30-14.30 Lviv

Limits of War Witnessing

with contributions by Jelnar Ahmad (Syrian Archive), Karina Buhaichenko (slidstvo.info), Yevheniia Drozdova (Texty.org.ua), Oleksiy Radynski (Filmmaker, Co-founder of Kinotron Group), Bohdan Shumylovych (Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv), moderated by Prof. Dr. Miglė Bareikytė (European University Viadrina)

Lunch,  12:30-13:30 Dublin/13:30-14:30 Frankfurt (Oder)/14.30-15.30 Lviv

CLOSED PROGRAMME:

Online Data sprint, 13:30-17:00 Dublin/14:30-18:00 Frankfurt (Oder)/15:30-19:00 Lviv

Facilitation: Johanna Hiebl (European University Viadrina) / Oksana Avramenko (Center for Urban History, Lviv)

13:30-13:40 Dublin/14:30-14:40 Frankfurt (Oder)/15:30-15:40 Lviv: 

Check-In: Continuation of project work with the data sprint group 

13:40-16:15 Dublin/14:40-17:15 Frankfurt (Oder)/15:40-18:15 Lviv 

Presentation of current state of the projects from data sprint in Sept. 2025 and feedback from the TG Archive

13:40-14:25 Dublin/14:40-15:25 Frankfurt (Oder)/15:40-16:25 Lviv

Slot 1 (45min) Group 1 Trustworthiness of OSI(NT) Outputs

14:25-15:15 Dublin/15:25-16:15 Frankfurt (Oder)/16:25-17:15 Lviv

Slot 2 (45min) Group 2 Sabotage

Break,  15:15-15:30 Dublin/16:15-16:30 Frankfurt (Oder)/17:15-17:30 Lviv

15:30-16:15 Dublin/16:30-17:15 Frankfurt (Oder)/17:30-18:15 Lviv

Slot 3 (45min) Group 3 Everyday War Witnessing

16:15-17:00 Dublin /17:15-18:00 Frankfurt (Oder)/18:15-19:00 Lviv 

Outlook: Future Steps for the TG Archive 

DAY 2, 01.04.2026

Roundtable, 15:30-17:00 Dublin/16:30-18:00 Frankfurt (Oder)/17:30-19:00 Lviv

Digital Justice and Accountability

with contributions by Jenna Dolecek (OSINT for Ukraine), Kaja Kowalczewska (Digital Justice Center, University of Wrocław/Queen's University Belfast), Maryna Slobodyanuk (Truth Hounds), moderated by Johanna Hiebl (European University Viadrina)

Film Screening and Q&A, 17:00-18:30 Dublin/18:00-19:30 Frankfurt (Oder)/19:00-20:30 Lviv

Film screening “A Home for Rita” (directed by Yulia Appen, 2025) 

Q&A with Yulia Appen and Sashko Protyah from Freefilmers, moderated by Prof. Dr. Miglė Bareikytė (European University Viadrina)