“Wars in Ukraine in the 20th and 21st Century: Media, Experts, Disinformation” - Conference 2022

In October 2022, an international academic conference was held in Regensburg, focusing on the role of media, expert knowledge, and disinformation in wars in Ukraine in the 20th and 21st centuries. The event was organized by the German-Ukrainian Historians’ Commission, including Polina Barvinska, Guido Hausmann, Tanja Penter, and Yurii Shapoval.

The conference took place at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg.

The event was organized in cooperation with:

• the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS),

• Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University.The conference was funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.

The aim of the conference was to examine how media and expert discourses shape perceptions of war, legitimize violence, and influence public opinion. Particular attention was paid to the interaction between truth and propaganda, information and disinformation in wartime, especially in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The programme included thematic panels on:

• propaganda narratives in Russia’s war against Ukraine,

• weaponization of historical narratives,

• the role of media in representing war,

• media and information during World War I,

• propaganda in World War II,

• Soviet traditions of propaganda and myth-making.

The keynote lecture was delivered by Anastasia Magazova (Berlin), who analysed social media as a tool of modern warfare.

The conference brought together leading international scholars, including Yaroslav Hrytsak, Martin Schulze Wessel, Andreas Umland, Ricarda Vulpius, Kai Struve, Ihor Shchupak and others.

The programme also included a book presentation by Yaroslav Hrytsak (“Overcoming the Past: A Global History of Ukraine”, 2021).

The conference provided an important platform for interdisciplinary and international dialogue on the role of media and knowledge in past and present wars.