The CityFace Research Initiative: Methodology, Results, Prospects

Abstract

In 2018, members of the Department of Historiography, Source Studies, and Archaeology of the Faculty of History of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, with the support of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, launched the CityFace initiative as an interdisciplinary platform for the study and reconceptualization of the history and culture of the cities of eastern and southern Ukraine. CityFace is an open academic network that brings together researchers, artists, staff of cultural institutions, and public activists from Ukraine and abroad. It was intended as a platform for the development of shared cultural and research projects, promotion of interdisciplinary dialogue, and exchange of knowledge between specialists in different fields of the social humanities. To date, the CityFace team has already competed four research projects and continues to work on three more, concerned with issues of destruction, preservation, and rethinking of various elements of the historical and cultural landscapes of Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Kharkiv during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. Participants in this research initiative pay special attention to the study of symbolic space, cultural heritage, sites of memory, festive traditions, commemorative practices, thematically relevant works of modern art, and more. The CityFace team coordinates online public events, such as presentations, discussions, and webinars, and documents the views of professionals in the field of cultural heritage protection (historians, museum workers, archivists, librarians, conservationists, artists, and others). CityFace actively works with Ukrainian and international experts and institutions, expanding the scope of international cooperation to improve cultural heritage protection practices and ensure sustainable development of the cities of eastern and southern Ukraine.