A panel exploring how the digital age is reshaping cultural heritage and collective memory in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Speakers: Sebastian Graf, affiliated researcher at Swedish Defense University; Eleonora Narvselius, researcher at Lund University and Wikimedia Sweden; Karin Glasemann, Head of Operations at Wikimedia Sweden

Moderators: Shirley Chan and Denys Gorbach, researchers at Lund University

Abstract
Geopolitical tensions and fast‑moving technological change are reshaping how we document, understand, and remember war. These shifts are especially visible in the digital infrastructures that now shape cultural heritage and memorialisation. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is one of the first major conflicts to unfold in an online environment driven by social media algorithms and increasingly by AI‑generated content, where disinformation circulates rapidly and often purposefully to obscure events on the ground. This has disrupted traditional ways of verifying information and building trust, while also creating new tools and new challenges for recording events as they happen. As a result, both established and emerging forms of collective memory are being reshaped, and a wide range of actors now play a role in preserving cultural heritage.

This panel brings together scholars and practitioners who approach these developments from different angles, in order to map and make sense of the evolving infrastructures that structure memory in and of the war.

This event is co-organised by the ERC-funded research project CONSPIRATIONS, research project Preserving War Online (Erik Philip-Sörensens Stiftelse) and the research node DICIT: Disinformation, Conspiracy Theories, and Infrastructures of Information (https://www.kultur.lu.se/forskning/forskningsnoder/dicit-disinformation-conspiracy-theories-and-infrastructures-of-information/).

Funded by the European Union (ERC, CONSPIRATIONS, 101077810). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Speaker Biography 
Karin Glasemann is a cultural heritage professional with a long experience from different Swedish national museum institutions. She holds a PhD in history and has extensive experience in digitising cultural heritage and providing access to digitised cultural heritage at scale, among other initiatives through Europeana's and Wikimedia's platforms. Karin recently joined Wikimedia Sverige as Chief Operating Officer. 

Sebastian Graf is an affiliated researcher at Lund University and a visiting researcher at the Swedish Defence University. He defended his PhD in History at Lund University in November 2025. His research focuses on the intersection of war, memory, and digitality in the context of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. He has published in Memory, Mind & Media and has a chapter forthcoming in the Routledge Handbook of Memory in Central and Eastern Europe.

Eleonora Narvselius is an Associate Professor in European Studies at Lund University, Sweden. She has participated in the EU- and Nordic-funded research, including Horizon, COST, Erasmus+, NordForsk, and RJ. Her academic interests span Ukrainian Studies, Memory Studies, Migration Studies, and Ethnology. Narvselius has collaborated with the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe (Lviv, Ukraine) on the project 24.02.2022, 5 am. Testimonies from the War. She has co-organized the Summer Institute Witnessing the War in Ukraine in 2022−2026. 

Wikimedia Sweden is a Swedish non-profit association that supports access to free knowledge through platforms such as Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons. Through partnerships, educational initiatives, digitisation projects, and volunteer support, the association promotes open, diverse, and accessible knowledge for all.

Participation is free of charge. No registration needed.