MALVA is an interdisciplinary research center founded in 2026 and based at the Germersheim campus of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany. The center grew out of the close collaboration between Mischa Gabowitsch and Mykola Homanyuk. Mischa is Professor of Multilingual and Transnational Studies and head of the Russian section at the Department of Translation Studies, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies of JGU Mainz at Germersheim, and Mykola is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography and Ecology at Kherson State University in Ukraine.

MALVA brings together an international and interdisciplinary team of postdoctoral and doctoral researchers doing research on several interconnected topics at the intersection of war, language, and memory. Geographically, MALVA specializes in the study of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and its successor states. One particular focus is on Ukraine and on advancing Ukrainian Studies in Germany. However, MALVA is not a Ukrainian area studies center. It is interested in developing joint research approaches that bring together Ukrainian, German, and other perspectives and bridge different scholarly disciplines, instead of treating Ukraine as a source of empirical data for Western theories.

To advance its research projects, MALVA organizes many offline and online events in a variety of languages. Members of the MALVA team are also closely involved in teaching in Germersheim. They contribute to expanding the Russian section’s focus beyond Russia to other parts of the former Soviet Union, and bring cutting-edge research to Germersheim’s BA and MA programs.