This seven-day-long summer school is aimed at training graduate students and junior researchers at the outset of their careers to become the next generation of teachers and researchers within the broad field of Romany studies. It will contribute directly to building local and regional Roma Research Networks, aiming to use synergies and complementarities between European countries to raise the quality of research and policy preparation. 

The course is a repeat but updated and adapted version of the summer school we ran in 2012 drawing on and contributing to the multi-disciplinary field of Romany studies. This year’s school will focus on Social Theory and Romany Studies and will aim purely at the promotion of academic scholarship in the social sciences in this field. It is intended in the first instance for doctoral students who seek an academic research career but also at masters students who intend to pursue research careers. 

The training is designed to encourage students to engage with a broader intellectual field than that they may have encountered so far within their own doctoral or Masters programme within a particular discipline. We believe it is impossible to teach coherently about Romany problems in any one country outside of a broader comparative and transnational perspective. 

We aim to influence both the way students carry out research in future and the ways in which they communicate and, especially, teach their findings. We recognise that there is a growing demand for training and teaching in Romany studies across Europe and, consequently, for materials for such courses. ‘Romology’ is increasingly widely taught in schools and especially in the training institutes of teachers, the police, social workers and other agencies of the state. One aim of the training will be to provide all the participants with the intellectual tools to take a critical look both at current practice.

The course will be taught by leading researchers from Anthropology, Sociology and History discussing the following topics:

• anthropological approaches to culture, poverty and identity (Michael Stewart, UCL/CEU)
• literacy, culture and identity (Jean-Luc Poueyto, University of Pau)
• demography and migration (Judit Durst, UCL)
•  problems with transnational politics (Marton Rovid, Decade of Roma Inclusion, Budapest )
• sociological approaches to marginalisation (Zsuzsa Vidra, Center for Policy Studies, Central European University, Hungary)
•  politics of gender and identity (Angela Kocze, Hungarian Academy of Sciences)  
• combatting hate speech in post-communist societies (Andras Pap, CEU/ELTE/Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
•  anthropology of institutions and practices/representations of inclusion 
  (Elisabeth Tauber, Free University of Bolzano, Italy)
• ethnicity and discrimination: lessons from the courts (Lilla Farkas, CFCF)

Successful applicants selected for participation in the summer course can turn to the European Academic Network on Romani Studies for financial aid as described here: http://romanistudies.eu/news/grants-for-early-career-researchers/ .

More detailed course description will be posted later.