Professor Daria Malchykova

IAS Fellow at South College, January-March 2027

Contact Details

• Home Institution email:  esgeogr@ksu.ks.ua 
• Durham email: tbc

Professor Daria Malchykova holds a Doctor of Sciences degree in economic and social geography, is a professor at the Department of Geography and Ecology, and is Vice-Rector for Educational, Scientific, and Pedagogical Affairs at Kherson State University (Ukraine). She has spent more than two decades advancing research and higher education in the fields of human geography and spatial development. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, her work has increasingly focused on the spatial, social, demographic, and institutional consequences of war and the challenges of recovery in war-affected territories.

Professor Malchykova is widely recognised for her contributions to spatial policies, regional strategic planning and post-conflict reconstruction in Ukraine, as well as to the resilience of communities and educational institutions in war-affected regions. Her research combines geographical analysis, spatial planning methodologies, and policy-oriented approaches to address questions of spatial and community wartime resilience, post-war reconstruction, demographic change, environmental transformation, and local development. She has played an active role in bridging academic research and public policy through participation in regional development initiatives, strategic planning processes, and expert advisory work. She currently serves on the working group responsible for actualising the Kherson Regional Development Strategy and contributes as a local planning expert under the Polaris Programme “Supporting Multilevel Governance in Ukraine” funded by the Swedish government.

Her recent scholarly work has focused on urban resilience, territorial governance during conflict, recovery of de-occupied territories, wartime demographic change, and the consequences of the Kakhovka Reservoir disaster. Representative publications include Planning Regional Reconstruction amidst Conflict: Balancing Territorial Governance in (Post-)War Ukraine (2025), Spatial and Human Challenges of Recovery of the De-Occupied Territories of Kherson Region (2025), Frontiers of Urban Resilience: multi-hazard risks and nonlinear recovery pathways in a conflict-exposed city (2026), External Occupation and Internal Liberty: resilience and resistance of universities in times of war (2026). She is a co-author of a monograph Crisis Management of a Modern University: academic resistance, resilience and development in wartime (2025) and also co-authored and edited a unique series of 17 Atlases of De-Occupied Territorial Hromadas of Kherson Region (2025), which provide evidence-based tools for local recovery planning and policymaking. 

Alongside her research, Professor Malchykova has contributed extensively to academic leadership and international cooperation. She has participated in fellowship, research, and training programmes at Harvard University, the Virtual Ukraine Institute for Advanced Study (VUIAS), Adam Mickiewicz University, the Czech Technical University in Prague, and other international institutions. She has been actively involved in collaborative research networks addressing war, recovery, urban transformation, and higher education resilience. 

As an IAS Fellow, Professor Malchykova will collaborate with Professor Markian Prokopovych and Dr Chrysostomos Apostolidis on the project ‘Towards Emerging Models of Regional and Local Development under Prolonged War Polycrisis’. Her contribution will examine how prolonged war reshapes spatial planning, local development strategies, demographic patterns, labour markets, and forms of belonging in frontline and de-occupied hromadas of southern Ukraine. Drawing on long-term research in the Kherson region, she will help develop new conceptual frameworks for understanding “war-shaped geography” and formulate policy recommendations for regional development and spatial planning under conditions of persistent instability. The project seeks to contribute to international debates on recovery, resilience, and post-conflict reconstruction while advancing globally relevant knowledge on war, space, and societal transformation.