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Paper short abstract

This paper explores the sensory dimensions of humanitarian response at the Polish–Ukrainian border (2022–2023). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I analyze how soundscapes constituted crisis as a state of exception, shaping how displaced people navigated and remembered emergency spaces.

Paper long abstract

This talk examines the sensory dimension of humanitarian response at the Polish–Ukrainian border (2022–2023). Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork across border crossings, temporary shelters, and transport hubs, I consider how everyday sounds—public announcements, engines and brakes, rolling suitcases, babies crying, dogs barking, volunteer instructions, prayers, songs, music, and purposeful silence—create a distinct sensory environment of the border that rapidly became “humanitarian” in Spring 2022. These acoustic and haptic environments illustrate the particularity of “state of exemption”, and crisis, established on the border 2022 where the ordinary rules are suspended.

I argue that although these environments often helped people to navigate uncertainty, they could also feel tiring or overwhelming. The border’s liminal setting makes these effects more noticeable, amplifying one voices and silencing other.

Methodologically, I present soundscaping as part of participant observation that can be seen as potentially more sensible and less traumatic approach to sensible inquiry: it captures the environment without requiring participants to engage with the researcher directly, while still offering insight into how people and humanitarians navigate transit and uncertainty.

By listening to how humanitarian spaces sound, the talk offers a grounded way to understand how emergency infrastructures are felt, used, and remembered by displaced Ukrainians and those assisting them.