A Search for Research: Mapping Archives in a Time of War

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, fundamentally changed how scholars in the social sciences and humanities could conduct research in Ukraine and Russia. Concerns for personal safety, government-issued travel warnings, and university policies limiting travel have made archives in those countries inaccessible to most scholars located outside the region. “A Search for Research: Mapping Archives in a Time of War” stands as a centralized hub for scholars to locate needed archives and documents and serves as a platform to generate conversation and collaboration. “A Search for Research” is a space for scholars of Ukraine, Russia, and the broader region to engage in moderated, scholarly dialogue and share resources related to research and teaching. Our current primary goal is to help scholars discover through a forthcoming interactive map, primary source collections located outside the region at a time when travel to the region is restricted. Our map will point scholars to archives, and our hub will also provide a list of resources and digital collections. As our project grows, we intend for this space to host select digitized primary sources and to be an incubator for other scholarly DH projects.