This special issue draws on a selection of papers given at the International Symposium Listening as Witnessing that took place in Athens from 16 to 19 October 2023. Organized in the context of ERC MUTE – Soundscapes of Trauma: Music, Sound, and the Ethic of Witnessing (Horizon 2020), it marked a collaboration between the Institute of Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation, The Listening Academy and the Athens School of Fine Arts. The interdisciplinarity of this encounter reflects the sonic turn that has been taking place in the humanities and social sciences; a paradigm shift that has brought to the fore the social, cultural and political ramifications of sound and the importance of listening practices in understanding the world. Posing new questions and shedding light onto perspectives previously ignored or silenced, has allowed scholars, researchers, and artists to challenge and transgress the boundaries of national archives and archives of violence. Understanding the multifaceted role of sound in political and historical traumas, as well as its inaudibility and absence in discussions about violence and resistance is to perceive a missing and crucial part of the puzzle that allows us to critically approach and listen to the past and present with different ears.

Inaugurating the journal Witnessing, this issue shares the notion of witnessing as a process that ‘cannot be fully grasped by one discipline single-handedly but requires the methodological tools and practices of many’ (See About). The articles, essays and sound essays explore – critically and multimodally – listening as a process of witnessing with regard to traumatic, invisible or inaudible sounds, voices, (hi)stories. How is trauma acoustically represented? What does it take to make an absent sound or voice heard? What is the ethical and political positionality of listening as witnessing? And what of the un­listenable, when it becomes difficult to listen further? What kind of response and responsibilities does listening-wit­nessing call for? Can mutualities and networks of care develop through practices of listening in such contexts? Can listening become the point where different struggles meet? What are the intersections of listening-witnessing and art practices? An encounter of scholars, artists and researchers, this issue aims at collaborative dialogue that contributes to new perspectives on listening as witnessing, initiating a redistribution of the heard. Published in a politically bleak moment in time, when human rights once taken for granted are consistently undone, far-right ideologies, racism, nationalism, and violence are spiralling out of control against a wide range of Others, while environmental crises, war, and genocide are raging, we wish to open up a dialogue with engaged communities of peers.