Science Lounge: The war on Ukraine in the media and public sphere

On March 22, 2023 EEGA organised a Science Lounge in a restaurant in Leipzig’s city centre as part of the IfL Research Workshop 2023. Participants of the Research Workshop joined EEGA researchers and invited guests in a moderated discussion. The EEGA Science Lounge explored the question “The war on Ukraine in the media and public sphere – What is expected of science? What can it provide?”

Prominent guests from science and the media, namely Gesine Dornblüth (journalist and author of “Jenseits von Putin” (2023)), Moritz Gathmann (chief reporter for Cicero), and Alona Shestopalova (researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at Hamburg University), discussed those pressing issues with free journalist and moderator Gemma Pörzgen.

Following on from the theme of the workshop, research in and about challenging environments – as conflicts, wars and authoritarianism – , questions of responsibility, accountability, the power of language and the violence of representation were addressed. Together with the interested audience, the speakers debated what a researcher can and should do, what the strengths of scientific discourse and the challenges of representation in the media are, and what, last but not least, people expect from information about wars and crises. The discussion was followed by informal exchange over drinks and Spanish tapas.