Project Overview
This project explores the history and memory of the Second World War through family and community archives gathered by undergraduate students at the University of Alberta. Developed in connection with a university-level course on the Second World War, the project brings together personal documents, photographs, stories, and narrated recollections preserved within families and close social circles.
Status: In development
Research Theme: Memory, History, and Violence in the 19th, 20th, and 21st Centuries
Secondary Theme: War, Society, and Everyday Life
Focus Region: Canada and transnational family networks
Project Leadership
This project is coordinated within the Institute in collaboration with course-based teaching at the University of Alberta.
Project Coordinator and Curator:
Hanna Abakunova (Institute for Knowledge, Research, and Society)
Student Curators:
TBA
Background and Significance
While the Second World War has generated vast official archives and historiography, many experiences of the war continue to survive primarily within families and local communities. Such materials often remain undocumented, fragile, or inaccessible to formal institutions, yet they play a crucial role in shaping how war is remembered across generations.
This project recognizes undergraduate students as active mediators of historical memory. By engaging with their own family histories or those of close family friends, students contribute to a broader understanding of wartime experience as lived, remembered, and transmitted rather than solely recorded in official sources.
Scope of the Project
The project is based on student research papers prepared for a university course on the Second World War taught by Hanna Abakunova. Owing to the quality and originality of the work, selected students were invited to participate in a collective exhibition initiative.
Materials collected by students reflect:
- Canadian wartime experiences across different ethnic and social backgrounds
- Migration, displacement, and transnational wartime trajectories
- Family memories connected to regions beyond Canada, including Asia and Europe
- Diverse forms of remembrance, including silence, narration, and visual memory
Participants are undergraduate students from the University of Alberta representing a wide range of academic and cultural backgrounds.
Sources and Materials
- Family photographs and personal documents
- Written recollections and narrated memories
- Student-curated contextual explanations
- Course-based research papers and reflections
All materials are shared voluntarily and curated with attention to consent, sensitivity, and context.
Methods and Approach
Pedagogical framework
The project is embedded in course-based research and emphasizes historical contextualization, source criticism, and reflective engagement. Students are trained to situate personal materials within broader historical frameworks without collapsing personal memory into generalized narratives.
Research and curation
Collected materials are contextualized through historical research and prepared for public presentation in exhibition form. The project prioritizes clarity, ethical handling of personal materials, and respect for the limits of what can and should be made public.
Ethics, Integrity, and Safeguards
- Participation is voluntary and student-led
- No coercion or expectation of disclosure
- Respect for family wishes and cultural norms
- Sensitive materials are excluded from public display
- The project avoids sensationalism and trauma-driven framing
Outputs
Educational outputs
- Course-integrated research papers
- Student-curated exhibition materials
Public-facing outputs
- Exhibition showcasing selected family archives and narratives
- Accompanying contextual texts prepared by students
Research outputs
- Reflections on pedagogy, memory transmission, and student-led archival work (forthcoming)
Updates
- 2025 — Student research papers completed
- 2026 — Exhibition development and curation