Postponed - Romani Identities and Antigypsyism

The course will focus on the nexus between Romani identities and antigypsyism. Antigypsyism is a core concept of critical Romani studies and can be used methodologically, analytically, and theoretically as a way of understanding the position of Roma in Europe historically and in the present moment. A growing body of scholarship grounds our understanding of antigypsyism in the Europeanization of the Roma issue and neoliberal regime expansion following the fall of communism. Other scholars originate antigypsyism in the nation-state building process. Some scholars define antigypsyism as an ideology and as a code of conduct that has been central to European culture.

Antigypsyism is part of the Romani identities. Romani survival in Europe, over the course of a millennium, has been contingent upon the adoption and practice of a number of performance strategies, including oral history, storytelling, music, dance, and theatre, as well as upon everyday narratives that perform intelligible Romani identities for both the community itself and for non-Roma. Oftentimes, such performance practiced as survival strategies has worked inside and alongside dominant stereotypes and racist exclusion; our course will interrogate and analytically examine the force of stereotypes and the mechanisms, systems, and practices of exclusion faced by Romani people worldwide.

In spite of the structural, systemic, and continually-evolving marginalization, exclusion, and violence that Roma experience at the hands of majority populations all over Europe, the European Commission does not include antigypsyism alongside antisemitism and Islamophobia as part of its human rights policies, but rather sees antigypsyism as part of the social inclusion agenda. Antigypsyism is also not tackled within the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies, the main policy document of the EU on Roma.

In the past years, an increasing number of scholars and Romani activists critical of policy-making towards Roma have underlined the need to address antigypsyism in order to increase the impact of policies targeting Roma in all spheres. However, antigypsyism should be seen as an analytical tool that allows us to move beyond inclusion discourse promoted by governments and international organizations which emphasizes equal opportunities and non-discrimination as policy aims. Thus, the course will explore the ways antigypsyism is constructed and enacted in different areas: academia, arts and culture, gender relations, etc. Antigypsyism is produced and reproduced in all these areas and we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the exclusion mechanisms that Roma face within society.

The course will feature Romani faculty and their non-Roma counterparts, and is aimed at Ph.D. and MA students, as well as practitioners, and looks to include programming that will appeal to and draw in a larger Romani and non-Romani public. Particularly, we seek to inform the fields of critical studies, Romani studies, feminist and cultural studies, sociology, and history. It will appeal to students, scholars, and practitioners currently working in the field of Romani and ethnic studies. 

Aims

The aim of this CEU Summer School is to link participating students and scholars with a transnational network of scholars in order to investigate the forms of oppression faced by Roma and to analyze the mechanisms through which exclusion of Roma takes place in different fields of public life. A methodological, analytical, and theoretical focus on antigypsyism serves as the prerequisite for a multifaceted research agenda with strong policy implications. The questions this summer school aims to address are: What is antigypsyism? Is this the best term to be used? Is antigypsyism measurable? How to analyze antigypsyism? What are its manifestations? How is it produced and reproduced in different areas of public life? Is there a need to propose new terms to interpret and analyze the situation of Roma? What is the relation between antigypsyism and Romani mobility, often defined as nomadism? How is antigypsyism related to gender and class?

The summer school will serve as a platform from which we can develop communities of scholarship and practice that feature Roma at their center, as well as a mentoring network, scholarly outputs, and practical engagement with Romani communities through dialogue and scholarly practice.

Key topics
Romani identity, Antigypsyism, Decolonial studies, Feminist perspectives,  Mobility and Nomadism, Social Justice

The course will be conducted in a mixed format, including lectures, seminar discussions, workshops, individual projects, library research, and individual consultations with instructors. Students will have reading time in order to prepare their presentations.

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This summer course can be taken as part of the European and Transnational Governance Network (ETGN) certificate program.
To find out more about how to obtain the Joint Certificate on European and Transnational Governance, please visit https://www.ceu.edu/etgn/ .