Research areas and projects

Ukrainian Studies in Germany

MALVA works to promote Ukrainian Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and in German-language academia more broadly. The German version of our website provides an overview of Ukraine-related activities — publications, online resources, and scholarly and cultural events — at our university, and lists Ukraine-related courses taught since 1946. Jointly with other departments, MALVA is launching a certificate course on Ukrainian Language and Culture as an interdisciplinary add-on to any BA or MA degree program at JGU. On MALVA’s initiative, JGU Mainz also signed a new cooperation agreement with Kherson State University in March 2026, adding to our university’s existing agreements with universities in Kyiv, Lviv, and Odesa.
In addition, Mischa Gabowitsch has been compiling a bibliography of German-language books on Ukraine published since the 17th century. The list currently includes over 1,150 titles, and will eventually be published in the form of a book with essays by leading experts in Ukrainian Studies.

Memory, commemoration, and monuments in Ukraine

SInce co-writing the book Monuments and Territory: War Memorials in Russian-Occupied Ukraine, Mischa Gabowitsch and Mykola Homanyuk have been working on a number of related projects on the diversity of frames of remembrance in Ukraine and on memorials to the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia and the ways in which they are articulated with Soviet-era war memorials. This page brings together their publications, interviews, and lectures on these topics. In particular, they are working on compiling a database of new war memorials in Ukraine and Russia. Long-term projects include a database of photos of Soviet-era war memorials and their post-Soviet uses, and an illustrated multilingual book about countermonuments.

Memory and commemoration in the new Russian diaspora

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a new Russian diaspora has taken shape, accompanied by emerging commemorative practices and memory discourses. Oleg Reut’s postdoctoral project and Laura Innocenti’s dissertation examine diaspora initiatives dedicated to commemorating the victims of the war and explores how migrants and other actors have become key agents in shaping new forms of remembrance abroad. Through fieldwork-based research, they analyze the media, practices, and interactions through which these memory activists engage with their host societies, contributing to what can be described as an “escaped memory.” Their research situates these processes within a broader European context, offering insights into transnational memory-making, post-conflict remembrance, and the potential role of diaspora memory practices in reconciliation and transitional justice.

Soviet and post-Soviet history textbooks and public history

Zhazira Bekzhanova, Mischa Gabowitsch, Arseniy Kumankov, Niginakhon Uralova, and Valentin Zharonkin are working on several interconnected projects on Soviet and post-Soviet history textbooks and public history aross different parts of the former Soviet Union. Areas of research include the visual analysis of history textbooks; the relationship between textbooks and other media of public history such as podcasts and alternate history novels; the actors of textbook production and use including authors, illustrators, publishers, censors, state officials, teachers, and students; and gender and ethnicity regimes in textbooks. Niginakhon Uralova’s dissertation examines the intergenerational transmission of memories of the Soviet period in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in family contexts in comparison with school history education.

Language policies and minority languages in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the successor states

Heghine Barseghyan is working on a dissertation examining grassroots responses to language policies in Armenia and Dagestan from the 1890s to the 1930s, drawing on sources in Arabic, Armenian, Russian, and other languages. Yelyzaveta Peretiatko’s dissertation research studies changing practices of language use in Ukraine following the full-scale Russian invasion. In the long term, MALVA plans to publish a commented edition of language laws from the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the successor states. In addition, Yanush Panchenko is completing his decade-long work on a commented dictionary of the Vlax dialect of the Romani language as spoken in southern and eastern Ukraine and southern Russia.

Lexi.eco: a multilingual online encyclopedia of key historical concepts across European contexts

MALVA is a member of the lexi.eco consortium, along with the Universities of Lille, Bielefeld, Santiago de Compostela, and Tartu, the Lviv Center for Urban History, and EuroClio – the European Association of History Educators. Lexi.eco is a multilingual online encyclopedia of key historical concepts and their uses across different national and linguistic contexts. MALVA participates in producing national case studies and synthetic entries for the encyclopedia, and coordinates lexi.eco’s translation strategy.

Social Innovation in the Caucasus and Central Asia

MALVA is part of CARSI (Caucasus and Central Asia Research on Social Innovation), an EU-funded research and training program which aims to increase expertise on these two regions at European universities. CARSI allows Johannes Gutenberg University to second staff to partner institutions in the Caucasus and Central Asia and participate in research and training activities. As part of CARSI, MALVA works particularly closely with institutions in Uzbekistan and Georgia.