We are a research group based at Aarhus University, Denmark, active in 2024 - 2027 (funded by the Augustinus Fonden). MELICA investigates the empirical basis of Cold-War preparedness in Aarhus by (1) reconstructing the everyday experience of individuals living in Cold-War Aarhus through spatial analysis of shelter locations and text analysis of written sources to assess whether the evidence points towards a militarization of everyday life or ‘normalization’ of war, (2) identifying gaps between how Cold-War civil defense was conceptualized at the national level and delivered at the local level in Aarhus, and (3) evaluating civil defense effectiveness by simulating a shelter drill, identifying weak points and stakeholders in civil defense planning. In accordance with FAIR data and Open Science principles, we publish all our outputs and related scripts under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License so that other people can expand and build on our work. You can follow us on our website
- Adela Sobotkova
(PI)
- Rosanna Farboel
- Iza Romanovska (partner investigator)
- Natalia Fedorova (post-doc)
- Brian Ballsun-Stanton (partner investigator from MQU, AI-driven archive digitalisation)
- Aiswarya Roy, student assistant
- Stine Lykke Thomassen, student assistant
- Carl Emil Brøgger Thomassen, student assistant
- Andreas Emil Mikkelsen, student assistant
