songs was the fact that the Roma were a non-literary community at the time of Koudelka's recording. The author of this paper will rely not only on the songs recorded by Koudelka, but also on his own collection of audio recordings of Romani songs from the 1980s and 1990s, and on texts published in scholarly literature and relevant songbooks. The author of this paper will not rely only on the songs recorded by Koudelka, but also on his own collection of audio recordings of Romani songs that he recorded in the 1980s and 1990s, and on texts published in scholarly literature and in relevant songbooks. The paper will partly build on the research of musicologist D. Holý and historian C. Nečas, who are the authors of the monograph "Žalující píseň", dedicated to the mournful song "Aušvicate hi kher báro". A version of this song also appears in Koudelka's collection. The aim of the paper is to present the Romani song as a phenomenon of collective historical memory, which was not bound to written sources, and to place it in a broader historical and socio-cultural context. His way of doing this will be to identify the basic motifs in the songs and analyse their symbolism, paying attention to stylistics and linguistic means.
**Open Panel 7: Teaching Romani literature**

**Convenor: Anita TARNAI**

I am proposing a panel on the subject of teaching Romani literature. I teach Romani literature to undergraduate students at Bard College. My course is offered through a global network (consisting of over forty institutions) so I have students in my class from different academic and cultural backgrounds reflective of the diversity of their institutions and geographies. I am looking for additional panelists to engage in a dialogue with about teaching Romani literature or other Roma related topics in academic or non-academic settings.
"Hope: That Was What Strengthened Us": Workshops for School Children
with Ceija Stojka's Art and Texts

In 2025, the Ceija Stojka International Association (CSIA) received a grant from the "Kunst ist Klasse/Arts in the Class" Program of "OEAC," Austria's Agency for Education and Internationalization, supported the Federal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research of the Republic of Austria, to create and hold interactive workshops with school pupils aged 11-14 years old in upper-elementary and middle school on the work of writer, artist, activist, and education Ceija Stojka, survivor of three concentration camps under National Socialism. The funds have supported the creation of a digital, interactive "Flipbook" in German and English as a teaching tool and to develop and facilitate ten workshops. The project's team consists of Ceija Stojka's family members, members of the CSIA, a graphic artist, a consultant from the Romani community, and an artist and author of a youth book on Ceija Stojka. Guided by the story and illustrations of Maïa Kleinknecht, a young artist living in Berlin who became inspired by Ceija Stojka's poems to illustrate and write a book for young people about the artist's life and works, the Flipbook presents background materials on Ceija Stojka's biography and on the history and cultures of Roma as well as poems and passages from Ceija Stojka's writings, images of her artwork, historical photos, interactive activities, questions for discussion, and a bibliography. At the time of writing this abstract in spring 2025, the workshops are taking place with pupils in Austria, and plans for workshops in the United States and Germany are underway. We also envision the possibility of offering workshops to teachers, using the Flipbook as a guideline for teachers to implement the workshops themselves in their own classrooms. For the in-person workshops, students learn through a presentation by Nuna Stojka, Ceija Stojka's daughter-in-law, about the writer and artist and through a hands-on project of creating their own texts and artworks with messages about hope. By the end of this workshop, students become familiar with the life, artworks, and writings of Ceija Stojka; gain an understanding of the historical contexts of the Romani peoples, including the persecution they faced during the Samudaripen; and experience the power of art and writing to overcome trauma and to build resilience to traumatic situations by creating their own artworks with empowering, hopeful messages. My presentation will talk about this project, focussing on the important intersection between literature and art when teaching young people about the life and oeuvre of a survivor of the Samudaripen. The presentation will reflect on the successes and challenges of the project as the relate to teaching Romani literature to what is now the fourth-generation youth after the atrocities of the Samudaripen.
# Gil'ora: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Romani Song Heritage

This presentation introduces Gil'ora, a Czech-based organization devoted to eponymous project of field documentation of traditional Romani songs, with the broader goal of transforming collected materials into educational resources for language learning, community engagement, and intercultural dialogue.

Gil'ora was founded in 2021 with the aim of documenting living Romani song traditions in their authentic, community-based contexts. Our team, composed of ethnomusicologists, linguists, anthropologists, musicians, educators, and community members, carries out fieldwork in Romani settlements across Czech Republic and also Slovakia, focusing on authentic music traditions that are often overlooked or insufficiently recorded. We record traditional songs preserving not only the audiovisual recording of the performance, but also the linguistic and socio-cultural richness present in these performances. We have already recorded and placed about 1000 songs on YT www.youtube.com/@gilora and these recordings are then embedded and accompanied by translations and further contexts on our website www.gilora.eu. Our focus is —as the title suggests — songs. Our main format is living room recordings, songs that Czech Roma play for themselves at home. We value authenticity and flexibility more than studio quality and offer more space to songs accompanied on acoustic instruments and marginalised styles of Roma music than to Pavlovce-nad-Uhom style with its characteristic keyboard hegemony.

A distinctive feature of our work lies in its interdisciplinary character: all recordings undergo careful linguistic transcription and translation, with attention to dialectal variation, prosody, and cultural nuance. The goal is to further analyze and annotate them, ensuring accuracy and cultural sensitivity. The resulting materials are then transformed into a range of pedagogical tools, including bilingual songbooks, interactive language-learning modules.

Our presentation – co-presented by Ondřej Skovajsa and Martin Gális – will share both methodological insights and practical outcomes. We will discuss fieldwork, technical aspects of audio and video documentation, advantages and disadvantages of the YT channel and its metadata, the added value of the website www.gilora.eu which promises the embedding Roma songs also across European borders, and the challenges of linguistic annotation in understudied dialects. We will also showcase samples of our educational outputs, including classroom-tested teaching materials that integrate music, storytelling, and grammar. In addition, we reflect on the ethical considerations of working with vulnerable communities, and our efforts to ensure that the results of our work are returned to the communities in accessible and meaningful ways.

Ultimately, Gil'ora is more than a research initiative—it is a community-based platform that celebrates Romani creativity, promotes linguistic awareness, and builds bridges between generations and cultures. Through our work, we aim to highlight the value of Romani languages and traditions as vibrant and dynamic, and to counter stereotypes by showing the richness and diversity of Romani cultural expression. We believe that music and language, when treated with respect and care, can serve as powerful tools for education, empowerment, and social change.
Teaching Romani Literatures in the Global Classroom: A Case Study

Teaching a course on literature written by authors of Romani origin in the global classroom, where students come from multiple cultural, geographic and academic backgrounds, presents an instructor with a number of challenges while also offering unique opportunities for breaking the traditional mold of the classroom and advancing a culturally inclusive and experiential learning environment. To begin with, there are a number of challenges that come with the subject itself. The question of what constitutes Romani literature is still subject to debate. Can we assert that there is a transnational literary phenomenon reflective of the shared history and experience of discrimination and persecution – a common theme in the works of authors of Romani origin – when many of the authors distance themselves from the notion of “Romani author” and would prefer to be regarded as part of the literary tradition of the nation they live in? How do we generate much overdue awareness of works written by Roma authors while also doing justice to the great diversity of voices and stances on core issues such as representation, self-representation and identity? How does one, as a non-Roma instructor, navigate sensitive questions surrounding the identity of a community one does not belong to? Similar careful attention needs to be paid to the diversity of the students to ensure that the learning environment feels safe and the syllabus is relatable and representative of the students’ diverse cultural and academic backgrounds. This presentation explores how the concept of the course addresses its challenges and illustrates how its project-based methodology centered on the engagement of students in the co-creation of class content in a form of an e-book (comprising of students’ translations, adaptations and comparative analyses) can ensure that works from the students’ diverse geographies and literary traditions are included in the course discussions.
### ÅBERG Kai Viljami

#### Finnish Roma and culture - the change and development of the media landscape due to digitalization

The Internet has reduced the ability of established institutions to control the direction of public attention. For example, the news media can no longer select and organize the information coming to the public's attention as strongly as before. This development has led to equalization of information sources. At the same time, new strong financial institutions have entered the media field. In my presentation, I will initially examine the current media landscape targeting the Roma in Finland in general, its dimensions and how digitalization has changed it in particular. After that, dealing with Finnish Roma news and how it has developed for the Roma population with the change in the media landscape. The localization of Romani music in various media platforms is also central to my review; internet search engines and portals filter, classify and recommend media content with the help of sophisticated algorithms and influence the kind of content we encounter. Along with others, the following themes emerge as key questions:

* The centrality of crime reporting from the internal perspective of the Roma community.

* Problematization of the internal hierarchy of the Romani community from within the community (gender).

* The placement of different Romani music genres in the previous questions.

* The impact of socio-political decisions on media content.

My presentation is based on more than thirty years of intensive field research among Roma in Finland and other countries as a researcher - musician.
# Acković Dragoljub †

## Donja Gradina – The Romani Auschwitz

The aim of this paper is to examine the extent of the genocide committed against the Roma in the territory of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), with particular focus on the Donja Gradina site, part of the Jasenovac camp complex. While it is commonly acknowledged that over 22,000 Roma perished in Auschwitz, in my talk I will argue that the number of Roma victims in Donja Gradina was significantly higher—between 80,000 and 100,000. These figures have previously been cited by scholars such as Dr. Rajko Đurić and Amir Brka, but often without extensive documentation. My recent research offers new evidence based on demographic data and historical records to support these estimates.

In my presentation, I will discuss how the 1931 Yugoslav census recorded more than 72,000 individuals who declared Romani (then referred to as “Gypsy”) as their mother tongue, including approximately 15,000 in the Drina Banovina. I will also refer to a 1939 register of Muslim parishes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, compiled at the request of the Reis-ul-Ulema in Sarajevo and listing substantial Roma populations across numerous localities.

Taken together, these sources show that in 1939 there were over 30,000 Muslim Roma and more than 20,000 Orthodox Roma living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This demographic baseline is corroborated by the census conducted by the Ustaša authorities in 1941, and it provides a critical foundation for reassessing the scale of Romani persecution during the Holocaust in the NDH (Independent State of Croatia). In my talk, I will present findings published in my book *Samudaripen Roma u NDH*, where I argue that the often-quoted figure of over 80,000 Roma victims is supported by both archival and testimonial evidence.

In addition to addressing the numbers of victims, I will also reflect on the terminology used to describe the genocide of the Roma. Scholars and activists remain divided on terms such as *Porajmos*, *Samudaripen*, and *Kali Traš*, reflecting broader tensions in how the Romani Holocaust is remembered and framed. In this context, I will argue for the need to acknowledge regional specificities while working toward greater recognition of Romani historical trauma within European memory culture.

The overall aim of this paper is to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the genocide of the Roma in the NDH, grounded in empirical evidence and informed by Romani perspectives. By foregrounding the case of Donja Gradina, I hope to highlight the urgency of documenting and recognising these histories, not only within Romani Studies but also within Holocaust and genocide studies more broadly.

> Mr. Dragoljub Acković, prominent Romani Serbian scholar, activist and politician, passed away on 27 June 2025, at the age of 72.
"E mašina zapiskind'as..." – musicological reflection on varieties of the song from a set of field recordings by photographer Josef Koudelka from the 1960s

The Romani slow song (called čorikaňi gil'i or žalosno gil'i) "E mašina zapiskind'as" reflects the situation and feelings of Slovak Roma who either on their own accord and under pressure, were leaving Slovakia and were involved in the process of settling the Czech border areas (the so-called Bohemian Sudetenland) from where the German population was displaced after the World War II. Musically, it is a variation on the old hallgató "Miri romňi so sal ajsi", but with updated lyrics. The same tune was used in 1980s by the Romani ensemble Čercheň based in the town of Rokycany. The new lyrics called "Šunen Roma" expressed protest against the forced sterilizations of the Romani women performed in the communist Czechoslovakia (until 1989). The photographer Josef Koudelka captured this song in the first half of the 1960s in several variations in the Slovak Roma settlements of Rakúsy and Jarabina, which Koudelka would visit repeatedly and where he made closest friends. From the folkloristic point of view, this area is a crossroads of the Goral and Ruthenian (Lendak) cultural spheres, which have both significantly influenced the melody, structure and interpretative style of the Romani songs. The paper, which is musicologically oriented, analyses and compares the varieties of the Romani slow song (čorikaňi gil'i) "E mašina zapiskind'as". At the same time, it deals with the issue of the appropriate transcription capturing finer intonation deviations in interpretation of this type of song, sometimes referred to in literature as *hallgató* and in romani folk taxonomy as *halgatonos* or *halgatovos*.
ANGEBAULT Christophe

« Les maisons, elles seront collées comme des classes ! » Relogement contraint, acculturation et jeu avec les institutions dans une pratique d'improvisation théâtrale avec des élèves Voyageurs

L'objet de cette communication sera d'étudier comment un groupe hétérogène d'élèves dits « Voyageurs » (majoritairement Sinté-Manouches) pense la transformation radicale de son mode de vie en caravane dans le cadre d'un programme d'expulsion/relogement de grande ampleur réalisé dans la région parisienne.

Pendant les trois dernières années de ce relogement, les élèves ont réalisé des ateliers d'improvisation théâtrale en petits groupes, en classe et sur leurs terrains, ateliers qui ont été filmés et transformés en un moyen-métrage intitulé Caravanes blues (2024). Partant d'une anecdote mettant en jeu la discrimination anti-tsiganes, Les élèves ont réinventé de manière très spontanée une forme de « théâtre de l'opprimé » (Augusto Boal) où ils jouent et mettent en jeu tout le système institutionnel de la société dominante (école, collectivités locales, police, justice, langue...) pour rendre une forme de justice à leur culture et à leur condition.

Une analyse minutieuse, théâtrale, socio-linguistique et politique, de leurs propos permet de comprendre la manière dont ils pensent le conflit entre les institutions de la société dominante et les institutions propres à leur communauté, mais aussi indissociablement la manière dont toutes ces institutions se pensent à travers leur corps et leur langage. De nombreux phénomènes linguistiques, écholalies, reformulations, intonations, lapsus, analogies, double ou triple énonciation, dialogisme et bilinguisme, se font jour qui sont autant d'interstices linguistiques où s'énonce et se questionne en même temps « l'encodage institutionnel » (Mary Douglas) en tant qu'il produit les places et les classes, les assignations identitaires, spatiales, linguistiques qui définissent le rapport entre la société dominante et la culture minoritaire. C'est ainsi que la proximité forcée induite par l'emménagement dans les maisons peut être comparée avec finesse à l'organisation des classes à l'intérieur de l'école. Ces élèves Voyageurs produisent alors un véritable savoir de l'impensé institutionnel de la société « gadji » en même temps qu'il cherchent à inventer une possibilité de perpétuer leurs propres codes institutionnels qui sont bouleversés par le relogement et menacés d'acculturation.

Dans une véritable « praxis » au sens que donne Cornelius Castoriadis, c'est-à-dire « ce faire dans lequel l'autre ou les autres sont visés comme êtres autonomes et considérés comme les agents essentiels du développement de leur propre autonomie », l'espace fictionnel de la théâtralité permet cette forme d'autonomie où peuvent se penser non seulement les institutions existantes, mais aussi l'instituant, au sens où se fictionnent d'autres « imaginaires institutionnels » possibles (Castoriadis).

L'étude reposera à la fois sur ce que le film donne à voir et à entendre, en acte, du jeu avec les institutions, ainsi que sur des entretiens conduits avec les élèves et/ou leurs familles, et enfin sur mes propres carnets de terrain accumulés en quinze de travail pédagogique et militant. Elle emploie des outils de l'analyse théâtrale, de la sociolinguistique, de l'anthropologie institutionnelle et de la philosophie politique pour essayer de donner à entendre la manière dont ces élèves peuvent espérer « persévérer dans leur être » et résister à l'acculturation dans le bouleversement institutionnel auquel ils sont assignés.
Transnational Mobility of Roma Diaspora in Europe: Addressing Racial Paradigms

The study assumes the multidisciplinary approach together with empirical and analytical research methods in dealing with the transnational mobility of Roma Diaspora in consequence of the transformation of Europe from brutal societies to royal and imperial dynasties.

The premise of this paper is to revisit the fact in regard to persecution and racist violence besides depressing responses of most of European powers to the problems of Gypsies/Roma who were considered criminals because of their grievously deplorable position in the societies. Moreover, racial prejudices compounded by religious hostility persisted on account of their pagan practices and sorcery. It demonstrates the inimical attitudes of the authorities to master-less community with no fixed abode through the legislations dealing with vagabondage, beggary and sedentariness.

My paper also deals with the narrative that deconstructs the notion of itinerant character or nomadism being the chief cause of transnational movement of Roma community. The paper analyses the reasons of alienation of and prejudice against the European Roma as anti-Roma prejudice still lingers on throughout Europe. Far-right populism is gaining momentum across the west and it has been followed by a rise in attacks against Romani people. From France to Hungary, Roma communities and camps have been subjected to violence and threats.

The research paper is a scholarly endeavour to navigate the historical and contemporary alley of ethno-political conflicts the Roma communities got mired to as well as aims at exploring the deplorable situations of Roma community as they continue to face discrimination and unequal access to vital services especially health services, housing, education and employment as well as other underlying reasons which have been keeping Roma at the higher risk of impoverishment and marginalization which compel them to undertake transnational migration for their better prospects.
Language shift in isolated Vlach Roma local communities in Hungary and the
issue of social integration

In the last decade I have conducted lots of intensive anthropological fieldworks in more
local Vlach Roma communities in Northeast Hungary. According to the fieldresults most of
them are edging on the threshold of language shift. Behind the change of language there
are more factors. The paper strives for revealing the most important aspects as well as the
consequences of the language shift. In the families where the parents' mother tongue is
the Romani one can observe the more and more frequent conscious decision of them to
speak with their kids just by Hungarian. If we would like to understand the causes of this
astonishing and crucial change of local culture, and beyond that the sociocultural
followings of the turn, then we should focus on the long withstanding features of the
Hungarian-Roma cohabitation. In my paper I will analyse the general tendencies of
language usage in Vlach Roma communities including the cultural determinants of that. In
other words, recognizing the chance of social mobility the most language shifts in isolated
Vlach-Romani local communities in Hungary is a kind of ethnic strategy. Widespread
recognition is that the social integration can be realized efficiently by the consciously
decided language change that leads also to the cultural assimilation of the analyzed local
communities.

In the paper I utilize Richard Alba's and Einar Haugen's theories of assimilation concerning the aspects of language shift. Furthermore, the contemporary theories of assimilation, especially the segmented assimilation helps to understand the similarities and differences between the certain local communities. In other words, according to the field results, however the consequences are same and the language change leads to similar situations, almost all the local Vlach Roma communities switch to use the Hungarian, but their routes are very different processes concerning the language assimilation because of the local peculiarities of the certain communities.
Towards a Genocide: The Persecution of Roma in Sub-Carpathia during World War II

This study investigates the persecution of Roma in Sub-Carpathia (Transcarpathia, today Zakarpatska oblast' in Ukraine) during World War II, focusing on whether these actions constituted traditional harassment or reflected a process of radicalization that pointed toward a potential genocide. While the history of the Roma during the war in Central and Eastern Europe remains under-researched, especially in contested border regions, Sub-Carpathia offers a unique case due to its incorporation into Hungary in 1939 and subsequent occupation by Nazi Germany in 1944.

The Roma in Sub-Carpathia, although initially spared the fate of the Jews who were deported and mass-murdered in May–June 1944, faced escalating persecution. These measures included forced labour, restrictions of movement, closed camps surrounded by barbed wire, and racial segregation. Physicians and civil authorities classified Roma as a public health problem, reinforcing racialized policies and contributing to their exclusion from urban centres. Police and gendarmerie routinely categorized Roma into wandering, settled, and musician groups, subjecting the first two to frequent raids, internment, and surveillance.

Evidence suggests that a number of Roma were deported in the summer of 1941 along with non-citizen Jews from Sub-Carpathia. While no direct documentation confirms mass killings of Roma at Kamenets-Podolsk, circumstantial evidence, including reduced census numbers and correspondence by Hungarian officials, indicates that 800–1,500 Roma may have been deported—some possibly murdered later in Nazi-occupied Ukraine.

The persecution intensified after the German occupation in March 1944. Plans to establish closed Roma camps and impose forced labour were documented, including the suggestion of a “radical solution” to the “Gypsy question.” Several survivors testified to systematic abuse, including rape of Roma women and cases of mass shootings, particularly in Barkaszó and the Munkács area. However, no central orders for genocide or deportation of Roma in Sub-Carpathia have been found, and most Roma in the region survived, largely due to the advancing Soviet Army in late 1944.

The study situates Sub-Carpathian developments within three scholarly perspectives on the Roma genocide: (1) the exclusivist position, denying a genocidal intent (Lewy, Karsai); (2) the inclusivist view recognizing a Roma Holocaust (Hancock, Bársony, Fraser); and (3) a middle-ground approach stressing circumstantial evidence (Weiss-Wendt, Stewart). The evidence from Sub-Carpathia suggests that while a full-scale genocide was not implemented, many preconditions—dehumanization, racial segregation, forced labour, and plans for ghettoization—were in place. Thus, the Roma were indeed facing a potential genocide that was interrupted by the shifting dynamics of the war.

This research contributes to the historiography of the Genocide of Roma by illuminating the local mechanisms of persecution in a contested borderland and by integrating oral testimonies with archival materials. It argues that Roma in Sub-Carpathia, although not annihilated, were subjected to policies that reflected genocidal logic, highlighting the need for further investigation and recognition of their wartime suffering.
Identity interpretations in visual art in the dimensions of Hungarian Roma/Gypsy fine art

The cultural and artistic values of Roma communities in Hungary are largely unexplored, and their empirical presentation based on research reveals innovative results previously unknown. The Roma visual arts movement, which began to unfold in the 1970s, along with its active contemporary processes, provides an exciting and constantly evolving organic surface for investigation, offering a new type of knowledge-based approach. I examine whether there exists a Roma visual arts movement, "Gypsy painters," or "Gypsy colors." In my research, I explore the role and impact of Roma identity in the context of the creation of artistic works, primarily from the perspective of the artist. In the context of art and identity, I outline the general development of the concept of identity based on Erik H. Erikson's (1950) developmental psychological theory of identity. Following a brief presentation of identity theories, the concept of ethnic identity according to Barthian theory is introduced, which states that individuals affect their environment, and this is particularly evident in the case of artists. According to the Barthian approach, the work of minority creators has a socially transformative effect. The starting point of this research is always the creator, specifically the relevant domestic Roma/Gypsy painters who have a significant impact on their environment through their artistic work, influenced by both their minority and majority communities. Therefore, the focus is not on the objects but on the subjects of the research, namely the Roma/Gypsy artists themselves and their cultural and artistic values.

The methodology of the research involves semi-structured expert interviews with the creators, as a primary objective approach, in line with the way Erik H. Erikson and Fredrik Barth developed their concept of identity as an inner process within the individual. During the research, the concept of Roma/Gypsy visual arts is defined, showcasing its diverse manifestations. Through the creation and analysis of a diagram titled "The Process of Initial Roma/Gypsy Visual Arts and its Transformation," I illustrate the various interpretative modes present in Roma visual arts. This expands the perspectives on Roma identity interpretations and creative mechanisms, providing space for broader interpretations of the artworks and their more realistic reception. The parallel between individual and various pervasive identity interpretations and the free, flexible versatility characteristic of art reveals constantly evolving and diverse interpretative modes, dismantling one-dimensional and limited stereotypes and making the reception of artworks more objective.

The research progresses from the personal interpretation of identity by Roma/Gypsy painters to the connection to collective identity consciousness, with the research findings reflecting from the perspective of universal art.
BODNÁROVÁ Zuzana & Márton A. BALÓ

Historical reconstruction and media representation of the earliest known
demand for Romani linguistic rights

In May 1850 a delegation of Romani people from Hungary gathered in a small town on the border of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Archduchy of Austria. They intended to present a petition to the Emperor, demanding equal linguistic rights for speakers of the Romani language. This event took place over a year after the announcement of the Imposed March Constitution, which sought to ensure equal rights for all nationalities throughout the empire while re-establishing a centralist and absolutist monarchy, and more than half a year after the Hungarian Revolution and War for Independence from the Habsburg dynasty had failed.

This intention was covered briefly in numerous newspapers in the Austrian Empire, which was also echoed in the Hungarian press. The event, which, despite its lack of success, can be considered a crucial milestone in the history of the Romani civil rights movement seeking recognition of the Romani language, has remained largely overlooked by scholars. Only a few books and papers, such as Tomka (1983: 51), Stolberg (2005: 100), and Marushiakova and Popov (2022: 11) mention it in passing, relying either on the brief newspaper reports or on a short reference found in Schwicker (1883), published over thirty years later.

Based on newly collected data, we attempt to reconstruct the event and place it in the historical context. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to locate the petition submitted by the Romani delegation; therefore, we will primarily rely on secondary sources to explore the event, including newspaper reports, eyewitness accounts and a memoir, while also considering books referring to this event.

We will adopt an interdisciplinary approach, examining the discourses through the lenses of sociolinguistics, historical research, sociology, and political science. Through an analysis of contemporary sources and drawing on the Discourse-Historical Approach (cf. Reisigl and Wodak 2015), we will examine the media portrayal of ‘the Gypsies’, ‘the Gypsy language’, and the event itself, shedding light on the linguistic manifestations of prejudice against the Roma and on the significance of this attempt to gain linguistic rights in the unfavourable historical circumstances. Finally, we show that this deputation was not an isolated case, as similar demands continued to emerge from the Romani community in subsequent years.

References

MARUSHIAKOVA, Elena & Vesselin POPOV. 2022. Introduction: The Roots. In Marushiakova, Elena & Vesselin Popov (eds.), *Roma Portraits in History*, 11–31. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh.

REISIGL, Martin & Ruth WODAK. 2015. The discourse-historical approach. In Wodak, Ruth & Michael Meyer (eds.), *Methods of critical discourse studies*, 3rd edn, 23–61. London: Sage.

SCHWICKER, Johann Heinrich. 1883. *Die Zigeuner in Ungarn und Siebenbürgen*. Wien & Teschen: Verlag von Karl Prochaska.

STOLBERG, Eva-Maria. 2005. ‘Pferdedieb und Zigeunerbaron’: Roma in Osteuropa zwischen Romantisierung und Rassismus. *Zeitschrift für Weltgeschichte* 6(2). 95–113.

TOMKA, Miklós. 1983. A cigányok története. In Szegő, László, László Fazekas, Tamás Szecskó & Natasa Beszédes (eds.), *Cigányok – honnét jöttek, merre tartanak?*, 36–52. Budapest: Kozmosz Könyvek.
BOYCE Melanie, Sophie COKER, Dada FELJA, Margaret
GREENFIELDS, Joanna KOSTKA & Chantal RADLEY

Improving the experiences of Roma families in contact with children's
welfare services in England: findings from a mixed methods research study

It is widely-recognised throughout Europe that disproportionality exists in terms of Romani and Traveller children's engagement with social care services. Official data suggests Romani and Traveller children are overrepresented in 'looked after' statistics in Britain; with anecdotal evidence suggesting many are from migrant Roma households. Language barriers, mistrust of authorities; lack of understanding of expectations of state-mandated 'good enough' parenting behaviours, and both overt and covert discrimination have been suggested as variables increasing the likelihood of state intervention and removal of Roma children from their families. Official statistics in the UK however elide data on indigenous Romani and Roma children, making it difficult to ascertain the number of Roma youth 'in care', or to interrogate factors predominantly cited by state authorities in child welfare proceedings.

Our recently completed co-produced (civil society and academic partnership) research set out to understand the variables impacting Roma families. Our mixed-methods approach combined data analysis; policy review; analysis of legal cases linked to care proceedings; in-depth interviews with legal and social workers, and focus groups with Roma families with lived experience of social care proceedings.

Our findings demonstrated a complex picture, highlighting both challenges faced by social workers, and problems encountered by Roma families resulting from rigid procedures and systemic discrimination. However, access to professionals with an understanding of socio-economic exclusion and racism experienced by Roma migrants plays a significant role in retaining intact family structures. Our resultant report includes policy and practice recommendations aimed at lawyers, social workers and other agents of the state.

Full report here: https://www.advicenow.org.uk/research-and-policy/reports/come-us-peaceful-way
Roma as a Symbol of Nuevomexicano Resistance in Eusebio Chacón's The Son of the Storm

In the novelette *The Son of the Storm*, New Mexican author Eusebio Chacón makes the notable choice to feature a Gypsy woman as a principal character. Given the political and racial climate of 19th-century New Mexico, Chacón's decision to make the main female figure a Gypsy woman and not an Indigenous, Mexican, or Black woman is striking. While the Gypsy figure is a well-established literary archetype, little scholarly attention has been given to the actual Roma communities present in 19th-century New Mexico and their influence on local cultural production. Following 1850, Roma groups migrated from Mexico into the American Southwest. Many set up camps along the Pecos River; Roma women offered to tell fortunes, and men often brought bears and monkeys that would perform in the streets. Roma women were looked at as exotic and magical; they were believed to have healing powers. On the other hand, they also inspired dark folklore. There was a common folk belief in 19th-century New Mexico that Gypsies stole children and ate them. The figure of the monkey as the devil and the gypsy woman as his fortune-telling assistant in Chacón's novelette appears to have been directly inspired by New Mexico's exposure to Roma culture at the time. The woman's choice to take care of the boy as if he were her own son directly counters the harmful folk belief. Whether this was intentional or not, Chacón simultaneously plays on traditional Roma stereotypes and subverts them. This narrative choice parallels the broader sociopolitical context of New Mexico during a time of national redefinition. After becoming part of Mexico in 1821, New Mexico was ceded to the U.S. in 1848 and became a state in 1912. People that resided in this territory were faced with the option of leaving their hometowns to go south to Mexico or staying and adjusting to life in a US territory. Many that stayed experienced racism and were labeled as "other." Those that stayed suddenly found themselves metaphorically "homeless" within a shifting national identity. As a traditionally nomadic and border-crossing group, the Roma became a fitting symbol for such marginalization and adaptation. I argue that Chacón's decision to use a Gypsy woman as a central figure in "The Son of the Storm" is twofold: it epitomizes the struggle of New Mexicans in the midst of changing borders and politics and it reflects his personal experience living in a diverse center of cultural production. His portrayal both engages with and challenges prevailing stereotypes, offering a nuanced symbol of belonging and transformation.
Samudaripen - European Remembrance: voices of young Roma and non-Roma students

During the Nazi regime in the Second World War it is calculated that more than 500,000 Roma were assassinated, a fact still largely ignored in European history and culture (Guimarais, 2015; Council of Europe, n.d.). The knowledge of their history and culture still faces a huge number of obstacles, resulting from widespread anti-gypsyism prejudice, discrimination, and exclusion in Europe (Council of Europe, 2020).

This presentation will address the results of an international project, funded by the European Union Commission under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV), and developed in three European countries: Italy, Poland, and Portugal during 2020-2023. The project was developed through the participatory action research method with the aim of building a historical consciousness, through artistic forms, of the Roma genocide and help inscribe Roma history and culture in European history. In Portugal, the project involved 12 young Roma and non-Roma people as leaders of social transformation processes involving schools and communities in making the historical memory associated with Samudaripen visible. The aim of the project was to unveil the unknown (Roma Holocaust/Samudaripen) through research (bibliographic, graphic, literary), by young Roma and non-Roma and a visit to Auschwitz Birkenau, transforming this acquired knowledge into their own training and into the training of other young Roma and non-Roma in the schools and organizations carried out by the young people who were part of the project; to use the arts (painting, graffiti, cinema, theater) as a form of expression and transformation.

In this presentation we will highlight the reflections of young Roma after their visit to Auschwitz Birkenau and the reflections made by young people between 12 and 15 years old from 3 low secondary school classes in Portugal after carrying out 4 workshops of 2 hours each on the Holocaust and Human Rights. The results revealed that Samudaripen is largely unknown, including among Roma communities themselves. However, it is also validated as relevant content to include in school curricula. From the analysis of the drawings and the evaluation carried out by the school students on the importance of the project activities, three categories were created: i) historical knowledge, ii) respect and acceptance of difference, iii) Human Rights awareness.

References

COUNCIL OF EUROPE. (n.d.). Teaching the history of Roma and Travellers. Towards a better understanding of our common history and cultural heritage in Europe. https://rm.coe.int/brochure on-teaching-roma-history-07062021-en/1680a2c585

COUNCIL OF EUROPE. (2020). Roma and Traveller inclusion. https://rm.coe.int/council-of-europe roma-and-traveller-inclusion-july-2020/16809f2a53

GUIMARAIS, M. T. S. (2015). O extermínio de ciganos durante o regime nazista [The Roma extermination during the Nazi regime]. *História e Perspectivas*, 53, 349-369.
The Resource Gathering Strategies of Romanian Roma in Oslo, Norway in the
face of Everyday Anti-Gypsyism

This paper reflects on some initial fieldwork conducted in Oslo during 2025 - with extended
visits occurring in February and April - regarding the Romanian Roma presence in the
capital city of Norway. Initial site visits have so far been made in Oslo to various public
spaces and public service locations - such as close to the main train stations as well as busy
street corners and thoroughfares - that Roma tend to occupy for economic business in and
around the city centre in Oslo. Via detailed observation work, as well as some initial
interpersonal contacts with Romanian Roma families, some tentative commentary can be
made on the various types of street work that Roma engage in, as well as the resource
gathering strategies and interactions that Roma have with non-Roma customers and
clients (see also the recent work of Friberg, 2025). Some reflections on precarious housing
and accommodation situations faced by Romanian Roma in Oslo can also be made, building
on previous research (Soare, Adriaenssens, and Herans, 2024). Further, some initial
informal contacts have been made with Norwegian state welfare agencies (i.e., contacts
inside the Ministry of Labour and Social inclusion) as well as with key Norwegian non-
governmental organisations and Roma-led voluntary agencies that work closely with Roma
migrant groups (e.g., Romano Kher Cultural Centre, Roma Versitas Association, and the
Selvhjelp for Innvandrere og Fyktninger (SEIF)). Some limited contact with the police
services in Oslo has also been attempted, to examine their approaches to policing the
Roma presence, when complaints are made by the public or by shopkeepers and the like,
but this has been difficult due to an earlier scandal involving the existence of a 'Roma Police
Register' (Lauritzen, 2024). The ongoing issues raised via the discovery of this 'register' by
Professor Lauritzen mean that the Police force in Norway has been rather 'closed' and
difficult to access for conversations on the Roma presence in Oslo. Nonetheless, the paper
summarises this ongoing fieldwork, and reports on some tentative results and findings
concerning resource gathering strategies of the Romanian Roma in Oslo and the varied
ways they encounter everyday Anti-Gypsyism as part of their lives and livelihoods.

References

FRIBERG, J. H. (2025) ‘Migration and street work among marginalized Roma: From livelihood strategies in Romania to political realities in Norway’, in Vincze, E., Ban, C., Gog, S., and J. H. Friberg (eds) *The Political Economy of Extreme Poverty in Eastern Europe: a comparative historical perspective of Romanian Roma*. London: Routledge.

LAURITZEN, S. M. (2024) ‘The wrongs and harms of a Roma police register’, *Al Jazeera*, 1 May 2024. Accessed 09-05-25 via https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/5/1/the-wrongs-and-harms-of-a-roma-register-in

SOARE, T., S. ADRIAENSSENS and K. HERANS (2024) ‘Housing quality and homelessness among people who beg’, Housing Studies, 40(6): 1401-1427. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2024.2347310
"A deeply embodied anthropological praxis": The contribution of the late Professor Judith Okely to Romani Studies

With her passing in late March 2025, at the age of 84, it is appropriate to critically reflect on the
significant contribution that Professor Judith Okely has made to a more critical and embodied
Romani Studies. My interest in this matter, and my perspective on her varied contributions, is
influenced by the fact I was fortunate to be supervised by Professor Okely as a rather young and
naïve PhD student at Edinburgh University in the 1990s. Professor Okely had a remarkable
academic career that saw her work in a number of quite different UK universities, including
Durham, Essex, Edinburgh, and Hull, as well as an extended time - in retirement nonetheless - at
her 'home' of Oxford, based in the International Gender Studies Centre at Queen Elizabeth
House. Although Professor Okely had several diverse academic interests within the broad
discipline area of cultural anthropology, including her love for extended fieldwork in Normandy
(Okely, 2001), she will be most remembered as someone who challenged long-held conventions
and wisdoms in what was becoming a more open and critical approach to transnational Romani
studies. For me, she will also be remembered as someone who was a champion, mentor, editor,
and harsh critic. Her breakthrough text, *The Traveller-Gypsies* (Cambridge University Press, 1983),
received as much rich praise as it did fierce criticism. Some of the intellectual reactions were
justified and merited, on both sides of the fence, but what was not deserved was the misogyny
and sexism that Professor Okely had to endure. Indeed, later auto-ethnographic work by her
often picked up on such threads and turned them on their head – ‘everything is content’, as she
would say, ‘these comments are not just mere anecdotes!’ (Okely, 2020). What Professor Okely
also did, across all her career and life, was to regularly cross the bridge between the role of
academic, intellectual, policymaker, and activist. This is probably one of the most important
lessons I took from my time with her, as well as the importance of ‘at-home’ anthropology and
embracing all our senses in order to try and make sense of the various ‘life worlds’ we found
ourselves in. For the discipline of Romani Studies, Professor Okely produced unique and novel
insights that helped ‘make the familiar strange’, having an ability to ‘do’ fieldwork that often led
to long-term friendships (this was also true of many of her former PhD students that she kept in
touch with and worked with in her later years). This paper will try to pull together some core
threads of Professor Okely’s impact on, and contribution to, Romani Studies and it will reflect
her own passionate, lively, erudite, and abrasive approach to the joys of academic debate,
discussion, writing, and reflection.

References

JASCHOK, M. (2025) ‘Remembering Judith Okely’, Oxford University Department of International Development. Accessed 09-05-25 via https://www.qeh.ox.ac.uk/news/remembering-judith-okely

OKELY, J. (1983) *The Traveller Gypsies*, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

OKELY, J. (2001) ‘Visualism and landscape: looking and seeing in Normandy’, Ethnos, 66(1): 99-120.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0014184020042643

OKELY, J. (2020) *Anthropological Practice: Fieldwork and the Ethnographic Method*, London: Routledge.
The „Eternal House’ - Death Cult Among Roma in Montenegro: Typology and
Mapping of Roma Cemeteries

The aim of this paper is to examine two important aspects of the death cult among the Roma in Montenegro: the religious and the sociological. The first section explores the complex system of post-mortem beliefs, customs, and rituals among two distinct indigenous Roma groups in Montenegro. It also analyses the growing influence of Islam on traditional Roma structures. As a result of societal transitions and increased access to educational resources—such as the internet—it has been observed that Islamic practices are gradually replacing traditional Roma behavioural patterns, introducing religious customs previously unfamiliar to Roma communities in Montenegro (veiling of women, regular prayer attendance, fasting, the presence of an imam at funerals, the construction of Roma-specific mosques). In light of these rapid transformations over the past decade, this paper seeks to assess the extent to which religion has reshaped not only funerary practices but also the broader sociocultural framework of Roma groups.

In the second case, the objective is to examine how funerary rituals maintain and renew the social and familial networks between the indigenous Roma population and their diaspora (such as delaying the burial to allow for family members from abroad to attend, burying long-term emigrants in Montenegro, the monumental nature of gravestones, and the inscriptions on them). Additionally, as a crucial element of social relations, cemeteries throughout Montenegro will be mapped and their typology analysed. Given that it has long been established in the literature that cemeteries serve as a sociological reality—essentially a "mirror of the people"—the initial hypothesis is that, in Montenegro, cemeteries may reflect the relationship between the majority population and the Roma, as well as the divisions between various Roma groups and other minority ethnic communities. For this reason, a mapping and typology of Roma cemeteries will be conducted to determine whether Roma in Montenegro are discriminated against even in death.

For the purposes of this study, field research will be conducted. The primary methods will include in-depth interviews, comparison of the research findings with previously conducted studies - which I carried out for my PhD dissertation - photographic documentation of cemeteries, and analysis of available archival, ethnographic, and media materials.
A Cultural History of Misleading Terminology: The Case of Les Bohémiens/Bohemians

The introduction to Jonathan Swift's *Treatise on Polite Conversation* (first published 1838) contains the following sentence:

> I remember about thirty Years ago, there was a Bohemian Woman, of that Species commonly known by the Name of Gypsies, who came over hither from France, and generally attended Isaat the Dancing-Master, when he was teaching his Art to Misses of Quality; and while the young Ladies were thus employed, the Bohemian standing at some Distance, but full in their Sight, acted before them all proper Airs, and Heavings of the Head, and Motions of the Hands, and Twistings of the Body; whereof you may still observe the Effects in several of our elder Ladies.

According to the *Oxford English Dictionary*, Swift's use of Bohemian to describe Gypsies is the earliest such instance in the English language. However, even earlier references appear in French, perhaps as early as the fifteenth century, but certainly in Paul Scarron's *Le Roman Comique*, first published ca. 1651. In chapter 3, Scarron writes about "les voleurs de Bohémiens," which contains an annotation that "Les Bohémiens ont la peau cuivrée et les cheveux noirs." Clearly, for Scarron, les Bohémiens—with their copper-colored skin and their black hair—are not from Bohemia in central Europe, which had become a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire as early as 1198.

This paper will explore how the word Bohemian (both in English and in French) became attached to gypsies, a meaning that the *Oxford English Dictionary* claims is "now rare," but which may appear as. Along the way, the word Bohemian also attached itself to someone who is "involved in the arts, who disregards or flouts social convention, and usually associates with others who have a similarly unorthodox lifestyle" (again according to the *Oxford English Dictionary*), or who is an "Artiste, littérateur, personne vivant sans règles, au jour le jour, hors des cadres sociaux," according to the *Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales*.

The location in Paris of the annual meeting of the Gypsy Lore Society and Conference on Romani Studies seems an opportune time to explore this topic, given that French was the language in which most frequently appear the connections among Bohemian = Gypsy = Free Spirit. One well-known example is Henri Murger's collection of stories, *Scènes de la vie de bohème* (1851), which became the basis for Giacomo Puccini's opera *La bohème* (1896).

That being said, this paper proposes much more than an investigation into etymologies and "ressources textuelles et lexicales." The double, if not also triple meanings, of Bohemian point to historical misunderstandings especially involving routes of migration of the Romani people, cultural romanticism and exoticism, and misleading stereotypes, many of which persist to the present day.
The Development of Roma children in Turkey: Language and Reasoning about Others' Minds

This research represents the first study of child development in Roma in Turkey with Huseyin Kyuchuk (Hristo Kyuchukov), looking at the relationship between complex language development and “theory of mind” reasoning in a group of 39 (16F, 23M) Roma children aged 4 to 8 years. 21 of the children were bilingual with first language (L1) being Romani and second language (L2) Turkish, and 18 of the children were monolingual speakers of Turkish. Both groups were from impoverished communities in Western Turkey. The children were tested by trained native speakers after parental and school consent was obtained. The purpose of the study was to connect the children’s ability to understand the beliefs of other people with their skill at complex linguistic tasks that relate to considerations of evidentiality. One language task entailed using short stories, after which the child had to verify the truth of two-clause sentences entailing causal relations using *because*. In some cases, the causes were factual as in, “The igloo melted because they lit a fire”. In other cases, children had to verify the truth of *evidential because* clauses that link conclusions to evidence, reversing the typical clause order for *because*. For example, “Martin went home, because his coat is gone”. Recognizing the truth of such a sentence relies on the understanding that the *because* clause relates to the evidence for the claim, not the cause. The second complex language task entailed answering *wh-questions from complements* such as “What did the woman say she caught?”, where she said something contrary to reality. Theory of mind tasks were classic “false belief” tasks involving *unseen displacement* and *unexpected contexts*, assessing the child’s understanding of what another character thinks. Statistical analysis of results using analyses of variance and regression reveal competence across all tasks by age 5 years in both Romani and Turkish as first languages. The finding on understanding others’ false beliefs is in keeping with universal findings on belief reasoning in this age range, however, bilingual participants performed slightly better in Romani (their L1) than Turkish. In terms of predictors for performance on understanding false belief, *evidential because* was highly correlated with belief reasoning, though *wh-complements* were also well understood earlier. In fact, performance on wh-complements was very strong. There is some preliminary evidence, in comparison with English speaking children, that the Roma children might be precocious in understanding *evidential because*, since both of their languages have grammaticalized evidentiality markings as part of their morphology. Previous research has argued that grammatical evidentiality could highlight *source of knowledge* for speakers of those languages.
Examining the Interplay of Social Cohesion, Belonging, and Urban Poverty:
Case Study of Roma in Budapest's Hős utca neighborhood

This paper investigates how neoliberal urban poverty shapes group dynamics, belonging, and solidarity among marginalized Roma communities, through an in-depth case study of the Hős utca neighborhood in Budapest. Based on fieldwork and interviews conducted in 2019, and situated in the broader structural context of neoliberalism's social effects, the study explores the breakdown of community cohesion and the emergence of a pervasive culture of blame among residents. Although the primary research predates the 2023 demolition of Hős utca, the paper highlights how the neoliberal and racialized exclusion of Roma populations is a cumulative, ongoing process — making these findings timely and relevant for understanding contemporary patterns of urban marginalization across Europe.

The paper situates the case of Hős utca within a global trend of state withdrawal from social responsibilities, as extensively discussed in recent scholarship on the retreat of the welfare state, neoliberal citizenship, and "states of abandonment." Drawing from work by Wacquant, Brown, and others, it argues that neoliberal restructuring transforms citizenship from a collective right into an individualized responsibility, resulting in selective neglect, territorial stigmatization, and the racialized exclusion of vulnerable groups. In this context, the Roma of Hős utca are simultaneously abandoned by the state and blamed for their own marginalization.

By analyzing primary data about the social dynamics of Hős utca — including residents' narratives of blame, weakened solidarity, and a profound sense of exclusion — the study illuminates broader transformations in Eastern European cities and beyond. It further examines the role of non-state actors in attempting to rebuild community bonds and contest exclusionary narratives. Ultimately, the case of Hős utca reveals how contemporary neoliberal and illiberal governance models reconfigure the symbolic and material boundaries of belonging, contributing to critical debates on racialization, urban poverty, and the shifting nature of state-citizen relations.
Beyond Stereotypes: Raising Middle- and Upper-Class Roma through Social Mobility in Türkiye

Academic and public studies on Roma communities in Turkey have predominantly focused on poverty, discrimination, and exclusion. The Roma identity has long been defined as a lower class or disadvantaged category, leading to the reproduction of a homogeneous, and stereotypical portrait of Roma in academic literature and public perception. However, this study re-evaluates the positions of Roma within social dynamics by examining social stratification within the Roma community and the social mobility processes of middle-and upper-class Roma participants from the perspectives of life chances and lifestyles. Utilizing a qualitative research design, this study conducted face-to-face in-depth interviews with 33 Roma participants from various cities in Turkey.

The findings show that social mobility among Roma communities is both possible and widespread. Analyzing intra-group stratification dynamics reveals that middle- and upper-class Roma individuals achieve upward mobility through education, family support, economic opportunities, and status mechanisms within the community. Rather than concealing their ethnic identity, these individuals transform it into ethnic capital, facilitating their access to economic and political power both within and beyond their communities. Field data highlight the crucial role of family structure and education in shaping social mobility. Socioeconomic background, attitudes toward education, ethnic identity construction, and levels of social capital significantly influence individuals' mobility opportunities. Roma individuals who rise to the middle- and upper-class redefine the relationship between their identity and social status. Beyond their individual achievements, they are also positioned as intermediary (bridging) actors who disseminate economic and cultural capital through their established social networks, civil society activities, and intra-community solidarity mechanisms.

This study, while revealing the dynamics of social mobility within Roma communities in Turkey, simultaneously critiques entrenched social perceptions, deeply rooted stereotypes, and perceptions that position them as exotic or marginal, thereby presenting a holistic sociological perspective beyond a homogeneous Roma perception. As mobility opportunities increase, the relationships established with Roma identity also diversify. Consequently, social mobility ceases to be merely an exceptional and unattainable state for Roma communities, but rather becomes a significant phenomenon that redefines the place of ethnic minority groups in the process of social stratification.
Lexical Layering, Derivational Strategies, and Semantics in Slovak–Romani Romani-Slovak Lexicography

This paper presents an in-depth reflection on the ongoing development of a bilingual Slovak–Romani and Romani–Slovak dictionary, focusing on derivational morphology, selected lexicographical challenges, and semantic phenomena that arise while working on Romani lexicography and its complex dialectal landscape.

The lexicon of (East) Slovak Romani is shaped by centuries of intense multilingual contact, rapid sociolinguistic change, and internal diversification. These factors impose substantial challenges on lexicographic practices, especially in terms of standardization, semantic equivalence, and derivational modeling. One of the central problems addressed in this contribution is the asymmetry between the well-documented and relatively stable system of Slovak, and often fluctuating, and highly dialectalized system of Romani. The dictionary in question adopts the Northern Central dialect as its baseline while reflecting cross-dialectal variants, offering insight not just into lexicon but also into morphology and derivational processes.

A particular focus is placed on derivation and word formation. The dictionary includes not only root lexemes but also affixed forms, such as diminutives, different derivational suffixes, their distribution and complex verbal constructions. In many cases, derivational productivity in Romani relies heavily on borrowing and adaptation from Slovak, other contact languages and dialects. The integration of such borrowings presents additional complexity, e.g. (semi-)calques, innovative derivations with foreign prefixes, questions of grammatical compatibility and semantic transparency.

The dictionary also documents semantic shifts and calques resulting from long-term bilingualism and code-switching. Many Romani speakers in Slovakia increasingly favor Slovak lexemes even in intrafamilial speech, which results in the erosion of core vocabulary. Furthermore, newer borrowings overwrite older ones, contributing to a stratified, layered lexicon. The inclusion of literal translations and idioms serves to highlight conceptual metaphors and semantic expansion within Romani, especially in cases where a one-to-one lexical correspondence is lacking.

Morphosyntactic classification also proves to be a challenge. Many lexemes resist easy categorization: for example, some lexemes may function as a quantifier, adverb, or pronoun, depending on syntactic context. The dictionary’s approach is inclusive yet transparent, marking such cases with careful notes or open categories where needed.

From a semantic perspective, Romani’s tendency to form periphrastic expressions poses questions of lexical equivalence and condensation, as many Slovak terms have no direct Romani counterpart. The problem is particularly acute in the domains of abstract and collective nouns, or idiomatic expressions. Moreover, dialectal differences in the meaning of common words demonstrate the limits of unified semantic labeling.

Lastly, this paper addresses the broader lexicographic philosophy behind the dictionary: to serve both linguistic and pedagogical functions. That means minimizing technical barriers (e.g., eliminating excessive abbreviations), promoting standardized orthography, and including explanatory material that reflects the sociolinguistic realities of Romani speakers. Rather than enforcing a rigid norm, the project aims to establish a platform for lexical dialogue—one that empowers users while acknowledging internal variation and semantic fluidity.

This contribution invites further discussion on how dictionaries of minority, endangered, and contact-influenced languages can balance descriptivism, prescriptivism, and linguistic empowerment.
Solax and armaja. A typology of Roma oaths as speech events

Formal oaths are a key component of social cohesiveness and dispute resolution in many
Roma communities. They are examples of the performative use of language and ritual. This
paper is based on the initial study of a corpus of 42 Roma oaths collected in the long-term
collaborative ethnography of a Roma diaspora originating in the Romanian regions of
Transylvania and Banat, as well as 9 examples from other groups observed in digital media.
Our study looks at the internal variance of oaths as speech events observed by thousands
of people on the Internet. We confirm that Roma oaths have two main ceremonial modes:
affirmative (solax) and threatening and cautioning (del armaja). They differ primarily in
whether the conditional curses they contain are aimed at themselves or others. The
affirmative oath (solax) may refer to the past to establish truth, or to the future and imply
a commitment. Thus, we identified three main types of Roma oaths corresponding to three
different illocutionary goals: achieving social truth, promising a course of action, or issuing
a caution or a threat. These three types of oaths serve different purposes, have varying
temporal orientations, and are associated with distinct gender expectations. They also
encompass distinct forms of speech acts integrated into the complex pragmatics of speech
events. In this paper, we present examples of each type of oath, together with a complete
transcription of their verbal forms, to illustrate the model and to contribute to future
linguistic analysis.
When Work Does Not Pay: In-Work Poverty in Marginalised Roma Communities

Participation in the labour market represents an important dimension of current concept of citizenship, playing role as a source of societal reciprocity and social integration. When it comes to the latter, paid work is seen as a main mechanism of poverty prevention and alleviation. However, a presence of poverty and deprivation in the working population shows that it does not always deliver its promises. This is a great paradox of developed societies: whilst strongly oriented toward (paid) work, they fail to ensure that it pays to work.

The presentation addresses the fact that being employed is not satisfactory condition to avoid poverty, when living in marginalised Roma communities. In particular, it explores the circumstances that generate in-work poverty and those that make it impossible to exit poverty when taking a job. In presentation, various geographical settings within the Roma marginalised communities, which differ by an extent of segregation, are compared in terms of in-work poverty and its trajectories.

Analyses are based on data from so-called MRK-SILC - a statistical survey of living conditions that was carried out by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic in Roma communities and that was constructed in line with the European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions. It uses the same methodology, the same concepts and questions.

We are well aware that studying the lives of Roma people by quantitative methods misses their important aspects that can be found in shared meanings, interpretations, or individual biographies. Respecting the tradition of strong qualitative orientation of Roma studies, we would like to offer a perspective that draw attention to empirical regularities and micro- and meso-level mechanisms generating and maintaining state of poverty among working families, with the aim to deepen our understanding of a nature of employment in the areas with a high risk of social exclusion and to reflect on the role of public policies.

The contribution was supported by the grant APVV-23-0492 "Patterns and drivers of work orientations and work experiences in comparative perspective" and the grant No. 09103-03-V04-00536 "Applications and development of a microsimulation model to support the creation of policy decision-making".
GREENFIELDS Margaret, Ryan WOOLRYCH, Judith SIXSMITH,
Rosa CISNEROS, Aleksandar MARINOV, Crina MORTEANU, Petr
TORAK, Ann HYDE & Gaba SMOLINSKA-POFFLEY

Navigating Places and Spaces in Old Age: Exploring the Rights of Older Roma
to Age Well in Urban Environments

**Background:** This paper examines the ageing experiences of older Roma (aged 40+) in three UK cities - Glasgow, Luton, and Peterborough - as part of the ongoing *RomaPlaceAge* project<fnref n="1" />. While the concept of ageing in place is widely promoted in policy and research as a means to support wellbeing in later life, the spatial dimensions of ageing among Roma communities remain critically underexplored. Much of the existing literature on ageing-in-place assumes access to stable housing, safe environments, and supportive services, conditions that are often absent in the lives of marginalised ethnic groups. Accordingly this study offers a unique perspective on the experiences of older Roma people living in the UK.

**Approach:** *RomaPlaceAge* employs a qualitative community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, working with Roma community members as partners and co-researchers throughout the design, data collection, and interpretation phases of the research. This paper draws on over 65 semi-structured interviews (at the point of abstract submission) conducted by Roma community co-researchers, undertaken with older Roma adults across the three study sites. The interviews explored participants' everyday experiences of ageing in place, focusing on how individuals navigate home environments, community spaces, and urban infrastructures.

**Findings:** Findings reveal significant barriers to ageing well in place, including navigating home and community responsibilities, opportunities for social participation, feelings of belonging and attachment to outdoor spaces, and issues of respect and inclusion in health and social care settings. We reflect on some of the ways space is highly gendered in old age within Roma communities, including issues of safety and security, balancing caregiving roles in mid to later life and visibility within public space.

**Implications:** The paper contributes to a more inclusive and context-sensitive understanding of ageing in place, offering critical insights into how ethnicity, gender, and spatial inequality shape experiences for Roma people as they age. It concludes by offering recommendations for urban policy, planning, and ageing frameworks - particularly the age-friendly cities and communities' agenda - to better reflect the lived realities of Roma communities. In doing so, the paper highlights the importance of designing and governing urban environments in ways that recognise diversity in ageing and promote dignity, belonging, and inclusion for all.

<footnote n="1">1 https://romaplaceage.com/</footnote>
Era changes or cycle changes? Reflections and measures related to Gypsy settlements through the prism of the conjunctural time in 20th century Hungary

A continuity can be observed across the 20th century, as pertains to the Gypsy policies of different eras and historical periods. It is generally believed that policies related to Gypsies can be traced back to the dominant ideology of the time and the thinking of those in power. Most researchers, on the other hand, have been content choosing and then analysing a specific well-known decree, imposing it on the period under study and describing its implementation as a one-way process, free of any consequences. Based on over ten years of research, I would conclude that the bureaucracy' measures and ideas concerning Gypsy settlements were shaped by the interaction of previous decrees, the experience of their implementation and the social and societal situation of the Gypsies in the given period. Over time, they had a different rhythm and dynamic than major political events and epochal changes. In my research, I relied on Fernand Braudel's theory of timelines as the best way to capture the continuity of the bureaucracy' regulation and conceptions of Gypsy settlements across the periods. I examined my research topic in the conjunctural time span covering the medium-term cycles of the three time frames defined by Braudel. This is not to say that I wanted to explore the actions taken concerning Gypsy settlements over a multi-decade perspective, but that its dynamics are different from the time of events that focus on the present. At the same time, I have attempted to identify the previously mentioned cycles and the periods that compose them.
Romani Entertainment Musicians and Hungary's Heritage Institutions

For almost two hundred years, Romani musicians have been central providers of entertainment music in Hungary, in restaurants, theaters, concerts, and other social settings. Experts often dismissed the music they play, so-called “Gypsy music,” as “slop” that lacks both the seriousness of Classical music and the “purity” of “genuine” peasant music. Scholars, critics, and composers from Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály to the present have considered rural musicians, Roma and non-Roma, to be more “authentic,” and such rural musicians have served as key informants in the Hungarian folk revival movement. Since 1989, the formerly ubiquitous practice of Romani bands providing music in Hungary’s urban restaurants and cafés almost disappeared.

Yet many Hungarians have long considered this kind of music-making to be a “commonly shared national tradition,” a vehicle through which the Hungarian soul... express[ed] itself,” and the crisis in the restaurant music industry provoked a reconsideration of this genre as a “true part of Hungarian musical culture.” In 2014, the Hungarikum Commission, a governmental heritage-supporting agency, added to the list of Hungarikums, or “outstanding national virtues,” the “classical magyar nóta”—the most important historical song genre associated with Hungary’s Romani bands—as well as the Hundred-Member Gypsy Orchestra, praised for its “exemplary artistic and tradition-preserving activity.” In 2017, Hungarian Heritage House launched a grant program, Music-Making Hungary, for restaurants to hire bands in the tourist season. Urban entertainment musicians interviewed have been gratified by these acknowledgements, but musicians and culture workers struggle over how such heritage programs should be implemented. In the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, it appeared that the Music-Making Hungary program would not continue, but it has returned in 2024 and 2025. This presentation uses a combination of interviews, documents, and ethnographic fieldwork to show how individuals and institutions have struggled over the authority to define what kinds of music-making to value, and whether the Hungarian culture sector will support urban Romani musicians for their contributions to Hungarian heritage.
# Regulation and registration of individuals labelled as “stray Gypsies” in Hungary

## Implementation of Ministreal Decree 15000/1916 BM eln. in Zala County

In 1916, the great powers of Europe fought a brutal war. The so-called “happy era of peace” that characterised modern Hungary (the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy) has long since fallen into oblivion. The deprivation and suffering caused by the war in the hinterland behind the stiffened fronts fundamentally changed the attitude of the majority society towards not only the non-Romani but also the Hungarian Romani communities. In 1916, The Hungarian Ministry of the Interior issued Decree „15000/1916 BM eln.” which regulated the mobility of the Hungarian „stray/vagabond” Romani community in 21 paragraphs and restricted them in many areas of life. According to the justification, the decree was necessary in order to fulfil their obligations as citizens, be it to pay taxes, perform military service or restore public safety. In Decree 15001/1916, the Minister of the Interior instructed the mayors on how to implement the regulations set out in Article 21. This study aims to present this measure on the example of a Hungarian administrative area called Zala County and to examine its implementation from a micro-historical perspective. It seeks answers to questions such as how has the concept of tented/stray or vagabond Roma been interpreted at different levels of administration? Who was included in this classification? In what ways were attempts made to limit the mobility of the Roma? What are the “Gypsy identity cards” and how far can they be seen as early signs of racism in Hungary, and what parallels can be drawn with European ones? What were the penalties for those who violated or failed to implement the regulation? How was it implemented and how successful was it, and what was the opinion of the contemporary press?
Bodies as Archival Sites: Remembering the Past for the Romanian Roma

It has been pointed out that the Roma or “Gypsies” have little interest in the past or they don’t collectively share the past by material means [Stewart 1997]. Their seemingly inattentive attitudes to the past have made present-oriented images of the Roma and resulted in slow compensation process after the Second World War. In the case of the Romanian Roma, approximately 25,000 Roma are estimated to have been deported to Transnistria and the half did not return [Achim 2004]. However, there are not many Roma who speak about the experiences in public, which makes it difficult to investigate what had happened to them during the War and the official compensation started only after the 2000s.

This presentation attempts to delineate how the Romanian Roma live with the past, especially when they have traumatic experiences or death of close families. First, the presentation focuses on their concept of irreturnability and returnability. Several examples of narratives about their community origin and memories of deportation to Transnistria suggest their idea of irreturnable place but returnable bodies. Second, the presentation examines the attitudes toward death of the Romanian Roma who keep photos or possessions of the deceased from archival approach. Through their attitudes toward the remains of the deceased, the past is revealed not as something to return but to create the present by resonating with memory of the living who regard the archives of the deceased. Third, the presentation discusses the archival role of Romani music. Manele songs about the families at weddings by Romani singers can be compared with non-Romani fanfare music at funerals.
Les pratiques langagières des élèves voyageurs, fantômes scolaires

« Elèves à besoins particuliers », les enfants issus de familles se présentant comme Voyageuses ont des pratiques langagières qui véhiculent de nombreuses représentations. A partir d'un corpus d'échanges didactiques, d'entretiens et de productions libres, nous présenterons le contexte sociolinguistique dans lequel elles apparaissent et parfois s'affirment en classe. Nous en examinerons les éléments caractéristiques et les implications didactiques.

Lors de leur inscription à l'école, les enfants issus de familles qui se disent Voyageuses sont catégorisés comme EFIV : Enfant issu de Famille Itinérante et du Voyage (Circulaire n° 2012-142 du 2-10-2012). Dernier produit d'une longue histoire de prise en charge pédagogique spécifique, cette catégorisation donne lieu à une assignation identitaire institutionnelle, alimentée par les stéréotypes séculaires attachés aux Nomades-Bohémiens-Tsiganes-Gens du Voyage, qui imprime jusqu'aux recommandations pédagogiques officielles (Armagnague-Roucher et al. 2019). Les documents d'accompagnement nationaux pointent tous les pratiques langagières de ces élèves qui se nomment Voyageurs, comme une des raisons principales de leurs « difficultés» d'apprentissage (Armagnague-Roucher et al. 2019; MEN 2016).

Sans existence institutionnelle (Cerquiglini 1999), sans reconnaissance au sein des para-romani (Courthiade 2013; Bakker 2020), les pratiques langagières voyageuses constituent pourtant une communauté linguistique affirmée par ses locuteurs. Considérées dans la classe comme une variation sans qualité (Auger 2022), les pratiques langagières des élèves voyageurs sont ignorées des scénarii didactiques, disparaissant face à la (sur-)norme scolaire (François 1980). Dans le corpus collecté dans le cadre d'un travail doctoral, les enseignants pointent pourtant les « erreurs » de syntaxe, une morphologie flexionnelle hors norme, une confusion de phonèmes signifiants ([ã]/[õ]), ou un lexique « pauvre ». Les locuteurs insistent quant à eux sur l'insécurité linguistique (Feussi et Lorilleux 2020) ressentie à l'école, notamment en raison d'une interdiction partielle de l'usage du lexique familial. D'autres éléments plus ou moins saillants apparaissent comme sources de malentendus, impactant le dialogisme didactique (Delarue-Breton 2014) : recouvrements lexicaux partiels, différences syntagmatiques...

En soulignant proximités et divergences avec la norme scolaire attendue, nous analyserons la présence de ces pratiques dans l'enceinte scolaire. Nous montrerons que ces « erreurs », perçues comme l'expression d'un « français mal maîtrisé », constituent des pratiques langagières cohérentes et efficientes, porteuses d'identité, qui, comme toutes pratiques familiales minorisées, peuvent être support d'apprentissages scolaires (Escudé 2020; Auger 2021; Jouannigot 2024).
Bibliographie

ARMAGNAGUE-ROUCHER, Maïtena, Isabelle RIGONI, Claire COSSEE, Catherine MENDONÇA DIAS, et Simona TERSIGNI. 2019. « Rapport de recherche EVASCOL. Étude sur la scolarisation des élèves allophones nouvellement arrivés (EANA) et des enfants issus de familles itinérantes et de voyageurs (EFIV) », 425 p.

AUGER, Nathalie, éd. 2021. *Enfants gitans à l'école et en famille*. ENS Éditions. https://journals.openedition.org/lectures/49958.

———. 2022. « Les langues des familles, des langues d'assez bonne “qualité” pour l'école? » *Glottopol*. *Revue de sociolinguistique en ligne*, n° 38 (octobre).

BAKKER, Peter. 2020. « Para-Romani Varieties ». In *The Palgrave Handbook of Romani Language and Linguistics*, édité par Yaron Matras et Anton Tenser, 353-86. Cham : Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28105-2_12.

CANUT, Cécile. 2007. *Une langue sans qualité*. Lambert Lucas. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00171169.

CERQUIGLINI, Bernard. 1999. « Les langues de France. Rapport au Ministre de l'Education Nationale, de la Recherche et de la Technologie et à la mInistre de la Culture et de la Communication ». Paris.

CHISS, Jean-Louis. 2016. *De la pédagogie du français à la didactique des langues: les disciplines, la linguistique et l'histoire*. Langues et cultures. Collection « Linguistique et didactique ». Palaiseau: Les éditions de l'École polytechnique.

COURTHIADE, Marcel. 2013. « Le rromani et les autres langues en usage parmi les Rroms, Manouches et Gitans. » In *Histoire sociale des langues de France*, PUR, 567-79. Rennes.

DELARUE-BRETON, Catherine. 2014. « Dialogue scolaire, dialogisme et événements d'énonciation : malentendus et in-entendus au sein de la classe ». Éla. Études de linguistique appliquée 173 (1): 87-97. https://doi.org/10.3917/ela.173.0087.

ESCUDE, Pierre. 2020. « Les langues dans leurs variations et leurs diversités : modalités et enjeux d'une didactique nouvelle ». In *Variation linguistique et enseignement des langues : Le cas des langues moins enseignées*, édité par Gilles Forlot et Louise Ouvrard, 23-37. TransAireS. Paris : Presses de l'Inalco. http://books.openedition.org/pressesinalco/39969.

FEUSSI, Valentin, et Joanna Lorilleux, éd. 2020. (In)sécurité linguistique en francophonies: perspectives in(ter)disciplinaires. Espaces discursifs. Paris : L'Harmattan.

FORLOT, Gilles, El Mustapha BARQACH, Olivier-Serge CANDAU, Luc-Willy DEHEUVELS, Marine DEPLECHIN, Pascale ERHART, Pierre ESCUDE, et al. 2020. *Variation linguistique et enseignement des langues : le cas des langues moins enseignées*.

FRANÇOIS, Frédéric. 1980. « Analyse linguistique, normes scolaires et différenciations socio-culturelles ». *Langages* 14 (59): 25-52. https://doi.org/10.3406/lgge.1980.1853.

JOUANNIGOT, Isabelle. 2024. « Accueillir La Variation En Classe : L'exemple Des Pratiques Langagières Des Enfants Du Voyage ». *Babylonia Multilingual Journal of Language Education* 1 (juin) : 12-17.

MEN. 2016. « Repères sur la scolarisation des enfants de familles itinérantes et de voyageurs ». *Eduscol*, janvier. http://eduscol.education.fr/EFIV.
Les pratiques langagières des personnes se présentant comme « Voyageurs » en France

Se présentant comme voyageuses, les familles catégorisées par l'État Français sous la dénomination communautarisante de Gens du Voyage (Cossée 2016) ont des pratiques langagières empreintes des stéréotypes séculaires (Delépine 2012) attachés aux Tsiganes-Gens du Voyage. Ces groupes familiaux résidant en France parlent une variété de français considérée sans qualité (Canut 2007 ; Auger 2022), à la fois stigmatisée et stigmatisante. Balayée dans les textes de référence, elle n'y est mentionnée que comme un « argot voyageur » (Courthiade 2013 ; Williams 2014), un « parler voyageur » (Liégeois 2019 ; Coquio et Poueyto 2014), ou encore un simple sociolecte (Clanet 2007) et n'a pas statut de langue. Les discours épilinguistiques collectés, comme les rares textes mentionnant les locuteurs, font pourtant apparaître une « communauté linguistique » (Bretegnier 2017) voyageuse alors même que leur variété n'est reconnue au sein ni des langues régionales de France (Cerquiglini 1999) ni des dialectes issus du romani (Bakker et Mous 1994 ; Bakker 2020) – à l'exception notable de Nahon (2024) qui le considère comme une variété de para-romani.

Pratiques interlectales, à fonctionnement polynomique, ces pratiques langagières présentent des saillances qui soulignent une divergence évidente avec le français standard, notamment sur le plan phonologique. Les marqueurs distinctifs concernent notamment les voyelles (maintien voire extension du /ɑ/ antérieur ; fusion de /ð/ et /ð/ en un unique phonème, souvent réalisé /ð/ ; maintien de l'opposition entre brèves et longues) et sont, pour certains, identifiés par les locuteurs aussi bien que par les « gadjés ». Sur le plan grammatical, la morphologie verbale est éloignée de la norme et construite sur des radicaux verbaux eux-mêmes non conformes. Nous constatons également l'utilisation d'un corpus lexical identifié comme « tsigane » car emprunté au romani, au manouche ou au yéniche : il est mobilisé par les locuteurs de manière dynamique dans l'interaction, principalement avec l'utilisation d'interjections, de bases verbales, ou encore de noms communs en insert. Un lexique archaïsant est souvent mobilisé, aux significations elles aussi divergentes de la norme, pouvant provoquer des malentendus avec les interlocuteurs extérieurs à la communauté. On observe enfin l'utilisation des termes de relations de parenté en adresse inversée.

L'analyse du corpus montre un certain nombre de caractéristique issues du français populaire tel que décrit par Gadet (1997), marqueur social, auxquels s'ajoutent des traits, spécifiques ou communs, à diverses variétés locales du français. Nous définissons ainsi le parler voyageur comme un ensemble de pratiques langagières qui font communauté, situé à l'intersection du para-romani, du français populaire et de français régionaux.

A partir d'un corpus collecté auprès de locuteurs aux profils variés, avec une méthodologie d'enquête ethnographique (Jouannigot, en cours) complété par des travaux récents (Nahon 2023, 2024), et des sources publiques diverses, nous présenterons une description des pratiques langagières de groupes familiaux qui se présentent voyageurs, dont le lien essentiel est l'appartenance au monde francophone, puisque leur parler est intercompréhensible avec les autres variétés du français.
Bibliographie

AUGER, Nathalie. 2022. « Les langues des familles, des langues d'assez bonne “qualité” pour l'école ? ». *Glottopol. Revue de sociolinguistique en ligne*, n°38, p. 19-32.

BAKKER, Peter. 2020. « Para-Romani Varieties ». In *The Palgrave Handbook of Romani Language and Linguistics*, dirigé par Yaron Matras et Anton Tenser, p. 353-386. Cham : Palgrave Macmillan.

BAKKER, Peter et Maarten MOUS (dir.). 1994. *Mixed Languages: 15 Case Studies in Language Intertwining*. Amsterdam : Institute for Functional Research into Language and Language Use.

BRETEGNIER, Aude. 2017. « "Communauté linguistique" : renoncer ou problématiser ? ». *La Bretagne linguistique*, n°21, p. 173-193.

CANUT, Cécile. 2007. *Une langue sans qualité*. Limoges : Lambert Lucas.

CERQUIGLINI, Bernard. 1999. *Les Langues de France : rapport au ministre de l'éducation nationale, de la recherche et de la technologie et à la ministre de la culture et de la communication*. Paris.

CLANET, Elisabeth. 2007. « La scolarisation des enfants du voyage au Centre national d'enseignement à distance ». *Distances et savoirs*, vol. 5 (4), p. 559-574.

COQUIO, Catherine et Jean-Luc POUEYTO. 2014. « Les Tsiganes et l'Europe ». In *Roms, Tsiganes, Nomades : un malentendu européen*, dirigé par Catherine Coquio et Jean-Luc Poueyto, p. 7-60. Paris : Karthala.

COSSEE, Claire. 2016. « Le statut “gens du voyage” comme institution de l'antitsiganisme en France ». *Migrations Société*, vol. 28, n°163 (1), p. 75-90.

COURTHIADE, Marcel. 2013. « Le rromani et les autres langues en usage parmi les Rroms, Manouches et Gitans. » In *Histoire sociale des langues de France*, dirigé par Georg Kremnitz, p. 567-579. Rennes : Presses Universitaires de Rennes.

DELEPINE, Samuel. 2012. *Atlas des Tsiganes*. Paris : Éditions Autrement.

GADET, Françoise. 1997. *Le français populaire* [2ème édition revue et corrigée]. Paris : Presses Universitaires de France.

JOUANNIGOT, Isabelle. Thèse de doctorat en cours. *Des pratiques voyageuses de la langue à l'école: analyse sociolinguistique et enjeux didactiques des pratiques langagières des enfants du Voyage*. Montpellier : Université Montpellier III – Paul-Valéry.

LIEGEOIS, Jean-Pierre. 2019. *Roms et Tsiganes*. Paris : La Découverte.

NAHON, Peter. 2023. « Les parlers des ‘Gens du voyage’ francophones : état des lieux et éléments de description ». In *Perspectives de recherche en linguistique et philologie romanes. Volume 1*, dirigé par Dolores Corbella, Josefa Dorta et Rafael Padrón, p. 941-952. Strasbourg : Éditions de Linguistique et de Philologie.

NAHON, Peter. 2024. « The French Linguistic Varieties of Gypsies and Travellers: An Original Diastratic Variation Perspective ». *Zeitschrift Für Romanische Philologie*, n°140 (1) : p. 30-76.

WILLIAMS, Patrick. 2014. « Langue tsigane. Le jeu romanès ». *Diversité*, n°176 (1) : p. 171-180.
# Features of teaching the Romani language as a native language (Advanced Level)

From experience of teaching adult Roma in Slutsk, Belarus

The author addresses the challenges of teaching the Romani language to its native speakers at an advanced level in Slutsk, Belarus. This presentation shares observations and experiences of social and methodological significance and introduces key recommendations as follows.

Some adult Roma in Belarus are not yet ready to be taught in a group; therefore, women shouldn't sit next to men unless they are close relatives.

Every course requires an adjustment period. The Roma are somewhat apprehensive that their 'secret' language is being emphasized in the classroom. A teacher or facilitator must be understanding and refrain from publicly suppressing them.

Teaching materials, aside from the book used by a teacher or tutor, should only be utilized with practical *Romanes* courses after the adaptation period.

The most obvious setbacks are:

* Firstly, there is a lack of common knowledge regarding the words and phrases (basic vocabulary) in everyday Romanes; what is familiar to one sub-group or even an individual may not be known to other groups of Roma, despite their potential relation.

* Secondly, there is a reluctance to accept certain common words from speakers, even those within the same groups.

* Thirdly, certain words associated with some Roma are deemed 'wicked' because of their secondary meanings in various nouns, adjectives, and infrequent verbs.

* Fourthly, there is resistance to using other words and phrases with the attitude that we are not inferior to the Roma who use them.

* Be patient with both sides: those who highlight the failure to know the word or phrase and those who use these words or phrases.

**Conclusion:** When the adaptation period is over, one should establish specific targets, including organizing a future competition or quiz with awards for winners. It is vital to help them understand that speaking good Romani fosters a sense of belonging and builds up the feeling of being Roma.
Tears of Blood: Making Papusza's Witness Account Available to the Global Public

Papusza's oeuvre is known worldwide in Jerzy Ficowski's Polish translations. Until recently the poet's work in Romani-language originals was not accessible, let alone published. The Polish translations were customized not to fall foul of communist censorship and in order to meet the mid-20th-century sensibilities regarding what 'proper poetry' should look like. In this process the voice of Papusza the Roma Homer was almost lost and quite seriously distorted. Unfortunately, these Polish-language adaptations continue to serve as the basis for translations into other languages.

The epic poem *Tears of Blood* has been hardly noticed in scholarship, yet it is the most important early witness account of the Roma Holocaust (Kali Traš). In 2018, with the support of Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov, Tomasz Kamusella initiated a project of translating the poem from the Romani original into English, Scots and Gaelic. The Scots poet Hamish MacDonald joined the team. Three years later, Emilia Kledzik located the poem's manuscript in a Polish regional library in Gorzów Wielkopolski and shared it with Elena. At this stage, Volha Bartash joined as the leading editor, while Viktor Shapoval as the project's paleographist and Romani translator. While a group of authors contributed chapters on the historical and cultural context of *Tears of Blood* and Papusza, Viktor painstakingly transcribed the Romani original phonemically recorded in the interwar Polish school hand. On comparison with the available Polish version, it was discovered that Ficowski excised almost three-quarters of the text.

Viktor translated the poem into Russian. Elena checked the translation against the Romani original. Drawing on the Russian translation, Tomasz developed a literal English translation, which Elena again compared with the original. Finally, Hamish used this version for developing an English poetic translation. At this time, with no standard Romani universally accepted, translation of Romani language writings into even main European languages requires teamwork. But this achievement shows that translating Papusza's writings from the Romani into English is possible and sheds much needed light on her work and its context. The resultant open access volume is a groundbreaking contribution to world literature and historiography. It makes this masterpiece of Romani literature freely available to scholars and readers at large.
KEHYA Rahime Özgün

A Review of Film Studies on Roma in the Turkish Context

This paper focuses on academic studies in film studies on Roma made in Turkey. Researchers in Turkey or researchers of Turkish origin have also analysed gypsy films produced in other countries. The study aims to analyse research focusing on Roma, comparing and synthesising perspectival tendencies, findings and arguments. By doing so, the study seeks to enhance the current literature on the topic by providing nuanced insights and a deeper understanding. Thus, synthesising the arguments will bring a perspective to the literature that can enhance existing knowledge and be used in practice. Roma in Turkey are one of the minority ethnic groups, each with their unique cultural heritage and various challenges. Similar to global trends, as with similar ethnic groups, there are prevalent representations and discourses of Roma in Turkish cinema and television films. These often portray Roma in stereotypical, negative, superficial images that overshadow their rich culture or the everyday, ordinary hardships they experience. Although there are occasional departures from essentialist imagery through nuanced and segmented portrayals, the representation of Roma is generally unsatisfactory in its authenticity and depth. “Which negative stereotypes about Roma are most prevalent in Turkish cinema and television? What concrete suggestions do the studies offer for improving the representation of Roma people in cinema and television?”. Therefore, the study aims to synthesise previous textual readings and focus on audience reception. Film studies were accessed through Google Scholar with the search words’ Gypsies/Roma in Turkish cinema’ and ‘Gypsies/Roma in Turkish TV series’ in Turkish and English, and the intersection of film and Roma studies was sampled, regardless of whether it was a thesis, article or paper. The findings and arguments are synthesised in terms of how Roma should be represented and what kind of discourse and content should be produced. In doing so, it aims to contribute to the film literature, paving the way for more authentic and respectful portrayals of Romani culture and identity as a reference for future representations, ultimately leading to a better understanding and appreciation of this community in the broader social narrative.
Customary and rite system of the Roma from Central West Bulgaria

The choice of the study region is based on the fact that Central West Bulgaria is primarily
home to long-standing sedentary Roma communities who have largely preserved a
standardized system of family and calendar holidays, customs, and rituals for decades. This
allows us to track the dynamics of changes influenced by the surrounding socio-cultural
environment.

The presentation will reveal the family and calendar holidays, customs, and rituals specific to the Roma living in Central West Bulgaria. The customary and ritual system is among the main markers of every ethno-culture, and this knowledge is fundamental for its comprehension. On the other hand, research on Roma ethno-culture in this border region of Bulgaria could eventually serve as a benchmark not only in other Bulgarian regions but also in the Balkans, where Roma from the same groups reside.

Generally, the Roma family and calendar customary and rite system coincides with the Bulgarian one (often this is the case even with the Roma Muslims). Moreover, cultural elements typical of the Turkish community living in Bulgaria are included syncretically in this system. Furthermore, some elements of the traditional Bulgarian customs and rituals, which fell into decay long ago, can still be observed in different Roma communities today. Yet, the formal coincidences do not lead to pithy unity; thus, the Roma rationalize and perceive the family and calendar customary and rite system as their “own,” meaning an important component of the overall Roma ethnoculture. As a result, every element of the system carries its specific Roma significance (for example, linked to some Roma legend, secondary explanation, modification, dressing, and changes in functions); one typical example is the celebration of calendar holidays in the old style.
Language Use And Identity Of Lom People Of Cankiri, Turkey

The paper is going to present results from a sociolinguistic study with Lom people of Cankiri in Turkey. The Lom community is less investigated among all three groups (ROM, DOM, LOM) who left India 1000 years ago. It is known that they speak a language which is an old variety of Armenian mixed with words from Indian languages. A small sociolinguistic study with 12 speakers (5 women and 7 men) between 18 and 94 years old was conducted in Turkish with representatives of Lom community in Cankiri, Turkey. Questions such as language use in different situations and how they identify themselves were asked. The findings from this study will be compared with findings about language use and identity among Romani groups from different countries.
# LENGYEL Emese

## Roma civic engagement through the example of the first Roma theatre in Hungary

The first independent Roma theater company in Hungary was established in 2004 under the name Independent Theatre Hungary, which creates socially reflective performances to this day. Its creation was primarily induced by the extremely stereotypical theatrical portrayal of Romani people, which generally reflected the majority society's image of Romani people. The theater, established under the artistic direction of writer, actor and director Rodrigó Balogh, has become a recognised and awarded example of Romani people self-representation across Europe. Its significance is demonstrated by the fact that it provides opportunities for talented Roma youth and Roma actors, thus also functioning as an educational workshop. Furthermore, most of their plays are original works, meaning they operate as a creative workshop, dealing with current topics affecting the Roma community, social issues, racism, and the prospects of young people. The field of Roma theatrical self-representation is extremely neglected in Hungary as well, but with two decades of work, Independent Theatre Hungary has become a defining independent theater.

The presentation aims to examine the self-representation strategies of two socially reflective plays and the specific social events while seeking answers to why Romani people theatrical self-representation is timely and what opportunities exist in the cultural industry in today's Hungary. The examples are the play Feather Picking (Tollfosztás) and the punk opera Builders of a Country (Országépítők). Feather Picking shows today's society and the reality of Romani people integration full of absurdity, hypocrisy, and horrors. Builders of a Country tells a historical story of the construction industry where Romani people have played a major role as workers since the beginning - as it seems. Moreover, the presentation also provides an opportunity to examine the operations of the theater, which has been in existence for over twenty years, from both theater history and social history perspective.
Could be intercultural mediation the solution to Ciganos/ Roma integration?
The Portuguese case and the example of Porto city

From the perspective of Giménez Romero (1997), intercultural mediation is a form of intervention by third parties in and around social situations of significant multiculturalism, aimed at achieving recognition of the recognition of the other and bringing the parties closer together, between ethnoculturally different social or institutional actors. However, the need for mediation is generally only emphasised in contexts of vulnerability and social exclusion (Guerra, 2008). Sometimes it is a question of attempts to 'normalise' the 'outsiders', those who differ from the 'established' (Elias and Scotson, 2000 [1965]), from a cultural point of view, since some citizens are viewed with strangeness or even as 'foreigners' (Simmel, 1997), spatially and socially settled and segregated from the urban fabric and the city (Wacquant, 2014).

Fifty years on from 25 April 1974, the persistence of gypsophobia (Bastos, 2012) and anti-gypsyism (FRA, 2022; Magano and D' Oliveira, 2023) in Portugal is notorious, and the right to non-discrimination and social integration, in the sense of citizenship, has yet to be fulfilled.

There have been several attempts to incorporate Ciganos/ Roma mediation professionals, but they have come up against the difficulty of formally recognising the profession. More recently, the creation of teams of Municipal and Intercultural Mediators, within the framework of the Strategic Plan for Migration, the National Strategy for the Integration of Roma Communities 2013-2020 and the Operational Programme for Social Inclusion and Employment (Portugal 2020) in 2018 sought to respond to the need for intercultural intervention with the Ciganos/Roma and immigrant population.

The aim of this presentation is to reflect on the role of Ciganos/ Roma mediators, in general in Portugal and in particular in the city of Porto, with regard to the action taken to mediate with Ciganos/ Roma people and families during the period of implementation and execution of the project in the municipality of Porto (March 2019 - April 2022). In this specific case, the results of a survey applied to Ciganos/ Roma people and interviews applied to technicians and mediators will be used to find out what impact the project had on public organisations and Ciganos/Roma and non-Ciganos/Roma residents. The results point to a huge range of activities, roles and expectations attributed to the mediators and the constraints they face in achieving objectives that are sometimes unattainable or beyond the reach of these interveners, who have no power of decision or mobilisation of human and financial resources.
## References

BASTOS, J. G. P. (2012). Portugueses Ciganos e Ciganofobia em Portugal. Lisboa: Edições Colibri/ CEMME/CCRIA

ELIAS, N. and J. SCOTSON. (2000 [1965]). Os estabelecidos e os outsiders: Sociologia das relações de poder a partir de uma pequena comunidade. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Ed

GIMENEZ ROMERO, C. (1997). "La naturaleza de la mediación intercultural". *Migraciones*, n.º2. Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, Madrid.

GUERRA, I. (2008). "A cidade multicultural e multiétnica. Gestão da diversidade e procura da democracia". in Matos, A. T.; Lages, M. F. (Coord.). *Portugal: percursos de interculturalidade*, vol.2: «Contextos e dinâmicas». Lisboa: ACIDI, pp. 97-118.

FRA (2022). Roma in 10 European Countries. Viena: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2022-roma-survey-2021-main-results_en.pdf.

MAGANO, O. e D' OLIVEIRA, T. (2023). Antigypsyism in Portugal: Expressions of hate and racism in social networks. *Social Sciences*, 12(9), 511. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/socsci12090511

SIMMEL, G. (1997). "Metrópole, Urbanismo e Vida Urbana". In C. F. (Ed.), *Cidade, Cultura e Globalização*. Oeiras: Celta.

WACQUANT, L. (2014). "Marginality, Ethnicity and Penality in the Neoliberal City: An Analytic Cartography". *Ethnic & Racial Studies*, 37(10), pp. 1687-1711.
MAGANO Olga & Fernanda LOPES

The implementation of a democratic system and citizenship of Ciganos/
Roma people in Portugal: the paradigmatic case of Zebreira, Idanha-a-Nova,
Castelo Branco District

The Ciganos/ Roma have been in Portugal for more than five centuries (since the first official registration), but there is still a huge lack of historical and social knowledge about their living conditions from their arrival to the present day. Knowledge is scarce and fragmented, both before and during the fascist state or ‘Estado Novo’ (Salazarism), when it was in force in Portugal (1933-1974). This was a period of dictatorship in which the relationship between the state and the Ciganos/ Roma was unknown. Only some information is known about the enormous repression experienced, persecution and expulsions, which contributed to the construction of an imaginary that reflects a past of constant flight (Mangas, 2021; Mendes, 2012). Thus, the state's strategy towards the Ciganos/ Roma has been characterised for centuries by segregation and merciless persecution (Bastos et al., 2007, Bastos, 2012; Silva, 2014). Every means was tried, even the most violent, to eradicate them from continental territory (expulsion orders; sentencing to banishment and deportations). Attempts at integration were rare and, when they did exist, they were always clearly aimed at repression, dissolution or domestication (Dias, 1995).

The few references available point to living mainly in rural areas, without sufficient means of subsistence, housing and health conditions (Brinca, 2012). The disappearance of some opportunities for seasonal work, such as tending livestock and picking fruit, has meant that, like many other Portuguese populations, they have migrated internally to the outskirts of large cities, especially Lisbon and Porto, and there has been a large-scale process of sedentarisation of the Ciganos/ Roma in Portuguese society (Costa, 1995). In 1952, the Ciganos/Roma were granted the right to citizenship, which required their children to enrol in school, be settled and do compulsory military service (Antunes, 1997. Since 1974, access to citizenship rights has expanded, as has the right to housing and health services (Mendes et al., 2014).

The democratic revolution of 25 April 1974 allowed for an unprecedented opening in terms of the possibility of settling and improving the living conditions of Portuguese Ciganos/Roma. The aim of this communication is to find out how the implementation of the democratic system impacted on the lives of Ciganos/Roma families and contributed to their settling in certain social and territorial contexts, both urban and rural. We intend to present some exploratory results resulting from the application of qualitative methodology with in-depth interviews in which Ciganos/Roma over the age of 65 are given a voice in various locations in Portugal. We will also use the results of an ethnographic investigation in a town in the central interior of Portugal that is characterised by many Ciganos/ Roma families - Zebreira, in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, in the district of Castelo Branco. In this town, Ciganos/ Roma makes up around 50 per cent of the resident population. Using an ethnographic approach, which includes fieldwork, participant
observation, interviews and documentary analysis, the research seeks to understand the historical and geographical trajectories of Ciganos/Roma families, the factors that enabled them to remain and take root, as well as the social dynamics established with the surrounding community.

We intend to contribute to in-depth knowledge of a unique case of Ciganos/ Roma families settling in a single parish, promoting reflection on public policies for integration and social cohesion and their interconnection with the conditions allowed by the change in the political scenario in Portugal.

## References

ANTUNES, A. (1997). Os príncipes do nada - contributo para o estudo de um trabalho social de reinserção de população cigana. Coimbra: Associação Integrar, ed.

BASTOS, J.; A. CORREIA and E. RODRIGUES. (2007). *Sintrenses ciganos. Uma abordagem estrutural - dinâmica*, [Sintrenses Ciganos: A Structural-Dynamic Approach], Lisbon: City Hall of Sintra & ACIDI.

BASTOS, J. G. P. (2012). *Portugueses Ciganos e Ciganofobia em Portugal*. Lisboa: Edições Colibri/CEMME/CCRIA

BRINCA, A. (2012). «Da pobreza ao enriquecimento, da fronteira à mistura». Ser-cigano antes e depois do 25 de abril à luz de uma abordagem estrutural-dinâmica. In Bastos, J.P. (org.). *Portugueses Ciganos e Ciganofobia em Portugal*. Lisbon: Ed. Colibri/CEMME/ CRIA. FCSH Univ. Nova of Lisbon.

COSTA, E. M. (1995). Os Ciganos em Portugal: Breve história de uma exclusão. In Cortesão; L. & Pinto, F. (orgs.) O Povo Cigano: Cidadãos na sombra. Processos Explícitos e ocultos de exclusão. Porto: Edições Afrontamento. Pp. 13-20.

MANGAS, F. (2021). "A longa marcha do Anticiganismo: História e Historiografia". In Novas e Velhas Extremas-Direitas, editado por Cecília Honório; João Mineiro, 159-172. Lisbon, Portugal: Parsifal.

MENDES, M. M. (2012). Identidades, Racismo e Discriminação: ciganos da AML. Lisbon: Caleidoscópio.

MENDES, M. M., O. MAGANO & P. CANDEIAS. (2014). *Estudo Nacional sobre as Comunidades Ciganas*. Lisbon: Alto Comissariado para as Migrações.

SILVA, M. C. (2014). *Sina social cigana: história, comunidades, representações e instituições*. Lisbon: Edições Colibri.
# RICHTÁRIKOVÁ Tereza

## Hobo marks, criminal signs and patrin: from pop-culture to criminology

Hobo marks, criminal signs, patrin – a purportedly related phenomena spanning the globe. These small marks allegedly used by various travelling groups (including the Roma) to leave secret messages, seem an innocent and harmless facet of the early 20th century pop culture. Even a legend can, however, have far-reaching consequences, and the belief in hobo signs has been a curious part of the general exoticization and criminalization of the Roma. We aim to discuss how easily hear-say shifts into officialised knowledge and leaves lasting impression, especially in the case of a marginalised group. Furthermore, the wide spread of the belief in a secret language shared by different groups of outsiders illustrates the globalisation of both knowledge and policing, emerging at the turn of the 19th century, and reveals interesting parallels between popular culture and criminology.
Transnational Balkan Romani Music: Global Audiences, Local Trends

This paper analyzes popular Balkan Romani music by comparing contemporary local performances inside Romani communities to those for non-Romani global audiences. Issues of genre, repertoire, instrumentation, text, and authenticity are examined, as well as the production and consumption of music. I trace how the brass band became the most popular form of Romani music for non-Roma due to its promotion in the 1980s by non-Roma producers, filmmakers, and arrangers. In contrast, the most popular form of Balkan Romani community music is the electrified and synthesized wedding band, which is, ironically, deemed inauthentic by most non-Roma. Moreover, wedding bands serve a growing transnational audience of diasporic Balkan Roma. Although these sites of performance and their audiences are very different, they are both embedded in processes of globalization. These two contrasting markets provide insights into the globalized nature of performative Romani identity.

Wedding bands featuring electrified melody instruments and two synthesizers are common in the southern Balkans and its diaspora in Western Europe and the U.S. Yet Romani synthesizer bands are almost never found on festival and concert stages in the “world music” scene. Instead, Balkan “Gypsy” music at festivals and concerts, produced by non-Roma, consists primarily of brass bands. The opposition “local vs. global” belies the transnational nature of both performance sites. This comparative study thus engages with scholarly conversations about transcultural audiences, migration, and media (White 2000). Building on Aleysia Whitmore’s work on the production and consumption of Afro-Cuban music on world stages (2020), I examine issues of context, genre, repertoire, instrumentation, and text, and how they intersect with the economics and power dimensions of music production and consumption.

This analysis draws on my fieldwork in both, local and world music sites. I began my research with Romani musicians in 1980, and, for over forty years, I have followed them, and the next generation of musicians, to celebratory events in the Balkans and the diaspora, and to global stages. Fieldwork took place in North Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and numerous diasporic locations in Western Europe and North America. To understand how Romani music operates, I approach it from several perspectives: the musician, who could be an artist, composer, arranger; the producer, who could be a booker, tour manager, company executive; and the consumer, who could be a global audience member, community member, family member. As a vocalist, booker, and tour manager for the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble, I viewed the music industry from several vantage points, both on and off stage (Silverman 2012, 15-17). I also examined print and social media about Romani music, raising questions about representation, and asking, who controls how Romani music is depicted visually and textually. My role as a non-Romani scholar/activist/performer has rendered me sensitive to issues of collaboration, active listening, and advocacy (Silverman 2018a).
## Quota-Unquota: Is the affirmative action framework in India a viable model for Roma emancipation?

This paper explores the viability of adapting India's affirmative action framework—particularly its constitutionally mandated system of quotas—as a model for the emancipation of the Roma in Europe. Given the challenge of managing demographic diversity and rampant inequality in a newly liberated nation, drafters of the Indian constitution like Dr B R Ambedkar included reservations for historically marginalized communities, bureaucratic labelled 'Scheduled Castes' and 'Scheduled Tribes' (GOI 1950), to which were later added categories like 'Other Backward Classes' and 'Economically Weaker Sections'.

The quotas were intended to be time-bound and addressed both 'redistribution' and 'recognition' (Fraser 1996), aiming to reduce socio-economic disparities while acknowledging distinct cultural identities. The reservation system has indeed facilitated greater access to education, public sector employment and political representation, but has also surfaced complexities in implementation. While fostering measurable upward mobility for many, it remains contested due to challenges such as elite capture, the 'creamy layer' issue, urban-rural divides and persistence of inter and intra-group differences.

Drawing on a comparative analysis of the position of Dalits and others within this framework, the paper examines the potential relevance of such mechanisms for the Roma, whose socio-economic exclusion and racialized marginalization across Europe parallel the dynamics of caste-based oppression in South Asia. The discussion engages with the 'Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Participation 2020-2030' (European Union 2020), evaluating its largely non-binding and programmatic orientation contrasted with India's more legally entrenched and enforcement-driven approach to social justice.

The paper further examines pitfalls and ironies and warns against appeasement politics that could skew the system, moving the mainstream to the margins (e.g., reservations currently cover more than two-thirds of the Indian population). Internal heterogeneity among marginalized groups is also considered as a factor that needs to inform debates on equitable policy targeting. While acknowledging differences in the legal and political contexts of India and Europe, the paper argues that India's experience with affirmative action strategies offers both cautionary insights and structural innovations that could inspire more effective, rights-based approaches to Roma inclusion, dignity and political empowerment.

## References

* EUROPEAN COMMISSION (2020) "EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Participation 2020-2030", https://commission.europa.eu/publications/new-eu-roma-strategic-framework-equality-inclusion-and-participation-full-package_en

* FRASER, Nancy (1996) "Social justice in the age of identity politics", reprinted in 2008 by Critical Quest publishers, New Delhi;

* GOVERNMENT OF INDIA (1950) "Constitution of India" (esp. Articles 15, 16, 46, and the 103rd Constitutional Amendment), https://legislative.gov.in/constitution-of-india/
Roma poverty and marginalization amid the decline of mining towns in
eastern Slovakia

Rudňany, a former mining town in eastern Slovakia, is a case of environmental injustice, with the impoverished Roma ethnic groups bearing an uneven burden of the adverse environmental impacts of industrial activity. The greatest development of Rudňany took place after 1945, when a new industrial plant for the processing of complex iron ores was built here. The town experienced a dramatic economic decline after 1990 as a result of economic restructuring after the fall of socialist regime. Nowadays, a group of approximately two thousand ethnic Roma live in substandard conditions in shacks located on the outskirts of the town, on the sites of former mining tunnels, where they are threatened by landslides and contamination by toxic waste, from mining waste heaps that surround one of the Roma settlements.

In this paper, based on combination of research methods (archives and
ethnographic field research), we examine historical economic and political context that has
resulted in uneven distribution of environmental harms. We study interethnic relations and
the power asymmetries that have shaped the lives of Roma in the village. We were
interested particularly in access to decision-making and the copying strategies of the local
Roma. The paper concludes with outlining of a more general pattern of the Roma
marginalization against the background of the processes of economic restructuring that
led to the decline of former mining towns in eastern Slovakia in the 1990s.

This paper was supported by the APVV-22-0428 Marginalized Roma concentrations in the context of natural hazards and social inequality.
Local Approaches towards implementing the 1960s Caravan Acts in the UK: three
case studies from southeast England

The paper reports preliminary findings from an ongoing study examining the evolution of political, media and policy discourses surrounding the provision of public caravan sites between 1960-1990. The paper will present data from local government archives and documentary sources to outline how the 1960s caravan acts were implemented in three case areas in southeast England (Maidstone Kent, Bromley and Ealing, Greater London) in this period. It will emphasise the importance of historical context and the role of institutions with a power-resources perspective focusing on interest-groups and the role of ideas and values in advancing or hindering policy-objectives (Lalioti, 2018: Korpi, 2006). Debates over site provision in this period contained both continuities and departures in form and content that reflected wider, and contemporaneous, issues and concerns in post-war society e.g., the state's relationship with, and responsibilities towards, minority groups, and the degree to which social policies should play a socialising and assimilatory function towards those groups or whether they should facilitate minority (nomadic) lifestyles, and the criteria for determining eligibility. Such questions had significant political and practical implications in planning, developing and implementing a public sites programme revealing divergent power relations, priorities and interests between different government tiers, geographical administrative boundaries and between local authorities and their constituents.

We will present emerging evidence concerning the factors determining how, and where,
Gypsies and Travellers were accommodated in the three localities; the influence of different
governmental and social actors in local decision making, and their respective influences in shaping
outcomes. The tensions inherent in these competing interests and priorities highlight how policy
making and implementation is complex, multicausal and resistant to change with outcomes varying
spatially and temporally (Hudson et al, 2019). Hyman's study into the 1968 Caravan & Sites Act's
implementation for example, revealed 'that between local authorities there were great variations of
practice and effectiveness of the implementation of the Act' (1989, pp. 1-2). More recently, Ruston's
(2023) wide ranging report into the provision of Gypsy and Traveller sites through the planning
system since 1960 found a similar diversity of practices and outcomes at the local level. This paper
contributes to an understanding of how these national policies were implemented (or not) locally;
the historical and sociological factors shaping local responses to travelling communities, and the role
that different interests – both pro and anti-Gypsy played.

References

HUDSON, B., HUNTER, D., & PECKHAM, S. (2019) Policy failure and the policy-implementation gap: can policy support programs help? *Policy Design and Practice*, 2 (1), pp. 1-14.

HYMAN, M. (1989) *Sites for Travellers: a study in five London boroughs*, London: London Race and Housing Unit.

KORPI, W. (2006) The Power Resources Model, in Pierson, C. & Castles, F. G. (eds.) *The Welfare State Reader 2nd Edition*, Cambridge: Policy Press.

LALIOTI, V. (2018). Comparative Social Policy: A Historical Overview of the Field, *Social Cohesion and Development*, 12(1), 39–56. https://doi.org/10.12681/scad.15944

RUSTON, M. (2023) *Kicking the can down the road: The planning and provision of Gypsy and Traveller sites in England 1960-2023*, Friends, Families & Travellers.
Reclaiming Birth Names for Roma Muslims in Bulgaria after 1989

During the socialist era in Bulgaria (1945-1989), there were several instances of forced renaming that affected various groups, including Muslim Roma (from 1959 to 1961 and from 1981 to 1984), Muslim Bulgarians (from 1962 to 1963 and from 1970 to 1975), and the Turkish population of the country (in 1984-1985). The government characterized this initiative as the "Revival Process," claiming it was a return to Bulgarian ethnicity. Following the fall of the socialist regime in 1989, individuals who had been forcibly renamed were granted the right to reclaim their birth names. Interestingly, many opted to retain their Bulgarian names instead, a trend observed among Muslims of all ethnicities.

This report will specifically focus on the choices made by Roma Muslims regarding their birth names: whether they choose to reclaim them or continue using their Bulgarian names. It will explore the reasons behind these decisions and their impact on the social and economic aspects of their lives. Furthermore, it will examine how these choices relate to their identity and whether their new names influence their present and future.
Humour rromani, a path to knowledge

In France, nomadic Roma and Manouches form a common administrative group with so-called
'Voyageurs'<fnref n="1" /> groups. While they may share certain traits with them, they are often studied as part
of this non-sedentary community. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Rromani studies document
and provide insights into these different groups. For a long time, these societies have maintained
relatively closed universes and cultural systems, which in some ways explains their longevity
(Williams; Piasere; Marushiakova; Courthiade; Seslavinskaya). For a long time, the sources and
fields of observation were administrative and police documentation (Lory), rarely those derived
from documents of practice (Clanet dit Lamanit), and more recently the performing arts have
figured prominently in research (Manrique; Pasqualino; Thède; Baraldi). However, objects such
as amusement and jokes have received very little attention. Breaches have been opened up in
the field of linguistics by Marcel Courthiade (2002) and Noemi Tudor (2024) and from the point
of view of anthropology, by the enlightening contribution of Patrick Williams (1999) on the
practice of humour among the Manouches of Paris.

With the emergence of the internet, members of itinerant groups, including Roma and Manouches, have acquired the visibility offered by social networks. Since the 2010s, short sketches have been available to everyone on the Youtube platform (Loiseau). They depict characters in everyday situations, signifying cultural practices of ethnic marking, occupation and sharing of space with other Voyageurs groups. These societies are scrutinised and adulated for their real or supposed artistic qualities and know-how, but they are also negatively categorised and ostracised. Between these pendular movements of classification made of amalgams, the creators of audiovisual sequences have emerged. Thanks to the internet, they have found a new channel of communication for expressing the community in a different way (Pastinelli), using humour and laughter (Le Breton).

In these short sketches lasting just a few minutes, the setting, the attitudes, the Rromani language mixed with other languages all contribute to structuring a message in a joking tone: a transmission of knowledge takes place (Ingold). Some of the sequences have a clear educational purpose. The message is received differently by different viewers, because not everyone is the intended recipient. Keys to understanding are often provided in the comments posted online by Internet users.

In this paper, I propose to compare some aspects of these productions created by ‘Les Chicken Wings’ and ‘Logan de Carvalho’, among others. They mischievously show what links or differentiates them from the other groups of Voyageurs to which they more or less claim to belong. They draw on their own experience to create their sketches. The jokes are about language, group practices and ontological explanations.

<footnote n="1">1 I am limiting myself to France, so the terminology remains in French. The translation of the word [voyageur] into English [traveller] refers to other nomadic groups in Great Britain. To avoid any confusion, i will retain the French term [voyageur] for this presentation.</footnote>
There is work on signifiers (Boyer) based on stereotyped representations of seasonal or even nomadic groups of workers. One of the central elements is the mobile home. The caravan is a source of imagination: it is the expression of a closed and codified environment. It acts as both set and character; it's a play space where the performers interact. It's the ideal setting for physical acting, the interpretation of dialogue with its intonations that underline the intentions of the sequence as well as those of the authors.

Two short sequences will be proposed for this presentation for anthropological reflection.

## References

* COURTHIADE Marcel and Stella MÉRITXELL PRADIER (2007). *Sagesse et humour du peuple rrom: Proverbes bilingues rromani-français*, l'Harmattan, Paris.

* TUDOR (URETU) Noemi (2024). *Transylvanian ethnic humour*, thèse de doctorat dirigée par Răzvan Georgian Săftiou, Université de BRAȘOV.

* WILLIAMS Patrick (1998) « L'histoire drôle comme instrument de connaissance », in Daphy Eliane et Ray-Hulman Diana (dir), *Paroles à rire*, Paris, Colloques Langues'O INALCO, pp 76-86.

## Humour rromani, une voie pour la connaissance

En France, les Rroms et les Manouches nomades forment un groupe administratif commun avec les groupes dits « Voyageurs ». S'ils peuvent montrer certains traits communs avec eux, ils sont souvent étudiés comme une part de cette communauté non sédentaire. Dans une approche pluridisciplinaire, les études rromani documentent et apportent des réflexions sur ces différents groupes. Ces sociétés se sont longtemps maintenues dans des univers et des systèmes culturels relativement clos, ce qui explique par certains aspects, leur longévité (Williams ; Piasere; Marushiakova ; Courthiade ; Seslavinskaya). Les sources et les terrains d'observation ont longtemps été la documentation administrative et policière (Lory), rarement ceux issus de documents de la pratique (Clanet dit Lamanit), et plus récemment les arts performatifs occupent une bonne place dans la recherche (Manrique ; Pasqualino ; Thède ; Baraldi). Cependant, les objets tels l'amusement ou les plaisanteries ont été très peu abordés. Des brèches ont été ouvertes dans le champ de la linguistique par Marcel Courthiade (2002) et Noemi Tudor (2024) et du point de vue de l'anthropologie, par l'éclairante contribution de Patrick Williams (1999) sur la pratique humoristique chez des Manouches de Paris.

Avec l'avènement d'internet, des membres issus de groupes itinérants, dont des Rroms et des Manouches ont acquis une visibilité qu'offrent les réseaux sociaux. Depuis les années 2010, des petites saynètes sont disponibles pour tous sur la plate-forme Youtube (Loiseau). Elles mettent en scène des personnages dans des situations quotidiennes, signifiant des pratiques culturelles de marquage ethnique, d'occupation et de partage d'espace avec d'autres groupes du milieu des Voyageurs. Ces sociétés sont scrutées et adulées pour leurs qualités réelles ou supposées dans le domaine artistique, leurs savoir-faire, mais elles font aussi l'objet de catégorisations négatives
et sont ostracisées. Entre ces mouvements pendulaires de classification faits d'amalgames, ont émergés des créateurs de séquences audiovisuelles. Ils ont trouvé grâce à internet, un nouveau canal de communication pour faire et dire autrement la communauté (Pastinelli) en mobilisant l'humour et le rire (Le Breton).

Dans ces petites saynètes de quelques minutes, le décor, les attitudes, le parler en langue rromani mélangé à d'autres parlers concourent à la structuration d'un message sur le ton de la plaisanterie : une transmission de savoir opère (Ingold). Certaines séquences sont clairement réalisées dans une perspective pédagogique. La réception du message diffère selon les spectateurs, car tous ne sont pas les destinataires. Des clefs de compréhension sont souvent présentes dans les commentaires déposés en ligne par les internautes.

Dans cette communication, je proposerai de comparer quelques aspects de ces productions créées entre autres, par « Les Chicken Wings » et « Logan de Carvalho». Ils donnent à voir avec malice ce qui les lie ou les différencie des autres groupes de Voyageurs dont ils revendiquent plus ou moins l'appartenance. Ils puisent dans leur propre expérience la matière de leurs saynètes. Les objets de plaisanterie portent sur le langage, les pratiques des groupes, et les explications ontologiques.

Il y a un travail sur les signifiants (Boyer) qui s'appuient sur des représentations stéréotypées de groupes travailleurs saisonniers voire nomades. Un des éléments centraux est l'habitat mobile. La caravane est porteuse d'imaginaire : elle est l'expression d'un milieu clos et codifié. Elle fait office de décor comme de personnage ; c'est un espace de jeu où interagissent les interprètes. Elle est le cadre privilégié pour le jeu corporel, l'interprétation des dialogues avec leurs intonations qui soulignent les intentions dans la séquence tout comme celles des auteurs.

Deux brèves séquences seront proposées pour cette communication pour une réflexion anthropologique.

## Bibliographie indicative

* COURTHIADE Marcel and Stella MERITXELL PRADIER (2007). *Sagesse et humour du peuple rrom: Proverbes bilingues rromani-français*, l'Harmattan, Paris.

* TUDOR (URETU) Noemi (2024). *Transylvanian ethnic humour*, thèse de doctorat dirigée par Răzvan Georgian Săftiou, Université de BRAȘOV.

* WILLIAMS Patrick (1998) « L'histoire drôle comme instrument de connaissance », in Daphy Eliane et Ray-Hulman Diana (dir), *Paroles à rire*, Paris, Colloques Langues'O INALCO, pp 76-86.
Engaging life: the ability to “cross borders” and “change in the continuity”
among a network of Romanian *Rudari* families

The paper deals with mobility and migration processes of a large network of Romanian *Rudari* families, and it is based on a long lasting fieldwork – from 2008 to 2020 – during which I “followed” the network mainly in an Italian metropolitan area and in various Romanian villages but also in other European countries.

My ethnographic approach looks at the present through the reconstruction of
historical depth; connects migration strategies with kinship models; explores the
transformations in the life of families and the "negotiation" of their "presence" both in
immigration and origin contexts; explores the category of "ethnicity" through the
dynamism of ethnicization processes; and leaves open reflections on future generations
and possible new investigations.

Mobility is embedded in the history of this network, strictly linked to their social and economic organisation, and the rise of the network itself. Furthermore, the socio-spatial morphogenesis of the villages of origin (that I found in the present) is the "product" of the mobility (choice, induced or forced) of the families during their history.

Mapping the spatial and geographical mobilities of the families – characterised by border-crossing, deportations and forced transfers – since the end of the 19th century, (and intertwining it to the genealogical space and to their social and economic organisation), allows us to understand the present of cultural and relational frames, and mobility as the principal ground of the flexibility through which they face economic and social situations, the perception and management of time and space of their life.

Adopting a “moving gaze” that I define as "pendular", I have explored the migrations paths of the families in various countries, their experiences related to the occupations of uninhabited buildings (in Italy), the homing processes (both in Italy and Romania), the movement of objects, ideas and imaginaries, the movement/displacement in time of the sense of presence and being at home and the meaning of the movement/displacement among the different generation of the families members.

Finally, *Rudari* family-cultural intimacy joins the forms of mobilities and the marriage patterns, that shape the transnational configurations that life histories reveal, together with the aspirations of people and the transformations faced in their lives and in their multiple life contexts.
Examination of Hungarian Roma Students' School Performance from the Perspective of Anthropology of Education

Researches with a sociological approach to education call attention to the fact that family background and parents' attitude towards education determine children's school performance (Forray, 2004). It is especially relevant in the case of Roma students. Taking into consideration this theoretical phenomenon, the current lecture intends to present a qualitative research that has been carried out in three settlements of Hungary.

On one hand, we tend to get acquainted with primary school teachers' perception about Roma students' school performance and Roma parents' principles regarding the values of school and studying. To map the problem, we conducted structured interviews (N=39) with elementary school teachers of the examined three settlements (Ibrány, Kótaj and Tiszabercel).

The perspective of the research is based on Anthropology of Education which deals with local communities, since according to its basic concept it is not possible to generate general solution proposals that can be valid for all communities. The main reason for this is that the social mechanisms in individual communities are situational, so the solution attempt must also be situational (Spindler, 2000).

Due to the Anthropology of Education approach of our research, after getting familiar with educational institutions in detail, we continued to collect the empirical data in the Roma communities of the three settlements. During our investigation, we analyzed the role that Roma families play in their children's schooling. We were curious about how Roma tradition and culture affect children's school performance and further education aspirations. Structured interviews (N=40) were carried out with Roma parents to comprehend and to reflect upon the local situation.
## The right of domicile for the Romani family in the municipalities Lety by Písek and Hlavečník?

Lety by Písek is a small village in South Bohemia, known in particular for the fact that a large-scale pig farm was built here in the 1970s on the site of a former concentration camp for Romani families, where over 300 Romani prisoners, mostly children, perished between 1942 and 1943. Activists, led by descendants of the survivors, fought for the removal of the pig farm for commemorative reasons for over 20 years, and it was not until 2024 that a memorial could be opened on the site of the camp. However, this research finds out, that the village also played an important role in the case of the determination of the right of domicile of an extended Romani family with the surname Růžička, which had previously claimed the village of Hlavečník in Eastern Bohemia. The paper is based on a search for the traces of this family and a detailed analysis of documents from the years 1850-1942 concerning the efforts of its members to have their right of domicile recognised in these two Czech municipalities (Hlavečník in East Bohemia and Lety by Písek in South Bohemia). The transformations of the actions of the councils of these municipalities illustrate, on the one hand, the obstacles to the successful coexistence of Romani families in the Czech environment, and on the other hand, the efforts of Roma to legalize their residence in specific municipalities and to achieve legitimacy for their stay in a specific locality from which they could not be expelled. In the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, the institution of the so-called right of domicile was originally a tool used to control how many potential soldiers a municipality could send to the army. On the basis of this law, home certificates and vagrant books were subsequently issued, as well as passports for persons who left their home municipality to work or study in cities or foreign countries. Gradually, the obligations of the home municipalities to take care of their needy, including returning aging and helpless persons, were linked to the home law. Thus, the municipalities gradually began to reject and disregard the right, especially among the poorer and destitute inhabitants. These rejectionist attitudes often affected the Roma inhabitants, who spent most of the year on the road and often returned to their home villages as a wintering place or as a harness - the municipalities then often turned to higher authorities with protests and refused to continue to recognize the right of domicile for specific families. The paper reveals not only other cases of this mechanism, but also a particular case study from Bohemia, where knowledge of Romani history is still full of historical gaps. Interestingly, one of them concerns the otherwise well-known village of Lety by Písek.
## Forgotten places of mass crimes against Roma in the Independent State of Croatia

The genocide of the Roma population in Independent State of Croatia during Second World War still to this day remains an under-researched topic in Croatian historiography. Many aspects of that suffering and death have been insufficiently researched, one of which is the issue of the implementation of a policy of mass crimes against the Roma population. The Second World War on the territory of Croatia began in April 1941, when German military units, together with other allied armies, defeated the army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in just a few days. The pro-fascist and ultra-nationalist Ustasha movement led by Ante Pavelić seized power with the support of Germany and Italy, and they declares the Independent State of Croatia. Soon after, was established the repressive policy of the Ustasha regime which was based on racial laws and a policy of persecution of minority (or as they called them undesirable) parts of the population, such as Jews, Serbs and Roma. One of the most significant parts of this Ustasha repressive policy was implementation of the policy of mass crimes against the Roma population. The presentation will analyse the question of whether crimes against the Roma population were carried out as part of a systematic (genocidal) policy against them or whether the Roma victims were part of collateral war operations against other groups of victims. Then, the presentation will specifically focus on the issue of the establishment of the camp system as a place for implementing a systematic policy of terror against the Roma population. In the last part of the presentation, will be analysed the question of how the postwar authorities in the Croatia treated the culture of memory at the sites of mass crimes in the context of the genocidal suffering of the Roma population.
Informal payments for health as a racialized project

This paper examines the intersection of informality, morality, and ethnicity by looking at how Roma and non-Roma individuals in Romania perceive and experience informal payments for health services. So far, the studies on informal payments in post-socialist contexts focused on the general population, without considering how different ethnic groups are impacted by and construct the practice. To address this neglect, this paper draws upon in-depth qualitative interviews with 17 Roma and 10 non-Roma people in Romania who sought health services in the year before the interview.

While previous works considered informal payments as occurring along a continuum ranging from corruption to culturally embedded gratitude, this paper argues that they also function as a racialized project, reproducing and reinforcing ethnic distinctions in post-socialist Romania. In the case of Roma, the widespread discrimination and the felt stigma create a general perception that informal payments are inevitable, even when they are regarded as a pernicious practice. The impact of informal payments on Roma is ambivalent. On the one hand, for some patients it mitigates discrimination and contributes to dignified care and even preferential treatment. On the other hand, for many people who are in economically disadvantaged positions, informal payments create an additional financial barrier to seeking care, reinforcing the unequal access to health services and contributing to health inequities.

The paper argues that informal payments are embedded in everyday negotiations of visibility, trust, and worth – negotiations that are deeply influenced by ethnicity. As a racialized project, informal payments structure micro-social processes of inclusion and exclusion along ethnic lines, shaping who is perceived as deserving of care, who gains access to various privileges, and who remains marginalized in the health system.
Formalizing Rromani lexicon and grammar with the NooJ platform as linguistic resources

This paper presents a set of linguistic resources corresponding to formalized Rromani dictionaries and grammar: 1) common to all Rromani speakers, 2) consistent but easy to use, and 3) accessible online.

Today, communication is often realized in written and digital form (e.g., social media, chat, etc.). However, the Rroms do not fully benefit from new technologies adapted to their language.

Rromani has been integrated into Google Translate in 2024. Its translation quality is misleading at all levels: lexical, grammatical, orthographic, and dialectal. For example, translating *thule bakră* which means either “fat ewes” in the direct plural or “fat ewe” in the oblique singular, Google produces the single translation “fat goats.” The English noun corresponding to *bakri* is not “goat,” but “ewe” and other morphological properties such as oblique singular are ignored.

Stochastic methods allow the development of certain resources quickly, but they always contain several types of error. Whereas, linguistic methods take more time, but are more reliable.

NooJ < https://nooj.univ-fcomte.fr/ > is a linguistic development environment linguists use to describe natural languages, by constructing linguistic resources in electronic dictionaries and formal grammars. For example, when an inflectional paradigm is applied to a lexical entry bakri [ewe], NooJ automatically generates all inflected forms associated with different morphological properties: bakri (direct singular), *bakră*, (direct plural), *bakră* (oblique singular), and *bakrĕn* (oblique plural).

Then, all inflected forms are stocked in NooJ as linguistic resources to analyze the corpus. If NooJ recognizes ambiguous forms (e.g., *thule bakră*), NooJ will show the annotation of all of them, opposing to statistical likelihood, such as Google Translate. To remove ambiguities, we have formalized syntactic grammar with NooJ.

Regarding writing, we adopted the Rromani alphabet which was standardized at the IRU Congress in 1990. The Rromani alphabet enables speakers of different dialects to understand each other in writing and gives them comfort in pronunciation.

The initial Rromani electronic dictionary we presented at the 2018 GLS conference contains only 650 lexical entries taken from a tiny corpus and more than 25,000 inflected and derivational forms generated automatically. Now, we converted about 4,500 lexical entries from an editorial dictionary (Courthiade, M. et al. 2009) into NooJ format. We chose this editorial dictionary that includes all Rromani dialects to not prioritize any dialects since the declaration at the first IRU Congress in 1971 says, “No dialect is better than others.”

The Rromani linguistic resources will be downloadable from the NooJ website very soon. The NooJ platform allows the formalization of complex grammar but is easily used. Therefore, it is accessible to all users, including non-scientists. The final set of resources can be used to identify each Rromani dialectal variant and can be integrated into pedagogical applications. It would be available as a new digital and linguistic tool for all speakers of Rromani: native speakers and learners, regardless of their dialects.
WITKOWSKI Maciej & Ewa Nowicka

Mental well-being and living in, off or on the borderlines of ethnic community: four case studies

Our ethnographic research over the past 25 years among Roma in Poland shows that a typical statement about the conditions for the survival of Romaniness is a strong belief in the necessity of living in an ethnic community. In order for Roma culture to survive, it is necessary to socialize in a relatively closed environment, in which a broadly defined family group transmits the language, creates extremely strong bonds of loyalty and shapes the most important elements of Roma customs. Living in such conditions is presented as a condition of happiness and colloquially understood psychological well-being. While this belief is by far the dominant one, many Roma declare the opposite. We learned the stories of people who, although they were raised in Roma communities, more or less abandoned the "Roma world" by choosing to live in an environment dominated by non-Roma and opening up to new forms of Roma identification.

In the paper, we present and analyze four very specific life stories of people from Roma communities who, as a result of a combination of complex circumstances (and also their own decisions), began living outside their own ethnic community. We try to show how these stories relate to established theories in the social sciences about the relationship between psychological well-being and leaving the ethnic community.

A typical way of predicting the fate of people belonging to deeply integrated ethnic communities who move out of their own group is to point to the higher probability of their psychological well-being problems, in the long run leading to social marginalization. Hence the belief in the beneficial role of a strong ethnic identity in stabilizing mental health. By analyzing the cases we have selected, we do not intend to falsify these findings, but to show, much more complicated nature of the phenomena determining the formation of individual mental well-being, escaping standard models and theories. From an anthropological perspective, we point to the role of dramatic subjective decisions made under specific circumstances and their short- and long-term consequences. Against the backdrop of the individual fates of our narrators, we present the significance and ambiguous role played in their lives by such factors as religious spiritual transformation, the local government's resettlement program, severe illness and the peculiarities of the ethnic subgroup to which one belongs.

The analysis leads us to the conclusion of the remarkable plasticity of psychological processes determining adaptation to life among non-Roma and the role of emotional crises in the decision to abandon life in the Roma community.
The Other Nomads through the Lens of the 1858 Ottoman Tax Reform

The prevailing literature on peripatetics within the Ottoman Empire has primarily concentrated on the Roma community in Ottoman Rumelia. This emphasis is mainly due to the visible presence of the Roma in that region as well as the accessibility of state records about the empire's European territories, which can be found in Ottoman archives located in Istanbul and Sofia. Recent academic research has expanded this focus by incorporating newly discovered archival materials that shed light on the experiences of non-Roma peripatetics in Ottoman Asia and their interactions with the Ottoman state. In line with these recent scholarly efforts, this presentation primarily utilises registries created by Ottoman bureaucrats after the 1858 tax reform, which sought to replace tax farmers with state agents possessing a lower degree of autonomy. To capture the local knowledge traditionally held by tax farmers, who had historically collected the Gypsy cizye from peripatetic groups, the state mandated an extensive registration of these communities across the empire. The outcome of this initiative resulted in registries compiled by state authorities in various localities, which are still preserved as scattered documents in the Ottoman archives of Istanbul. A comparative analysis of Gypsy cizye registries from the late 17th century and 19th-century records reveals that the Ottomans extracted Gypsy cizye from several peripatetic groups, including Doms, Loms, and Abdals, in various cities throughout Ottoman Asia, such as Kastamonu, Çankırı-Tosya, Ankara, Malatya, Harput, and Aleppo. Moreover, tax collection responsibilities for peripatetics integrated into pastoral nomadic tribal organisations were assigned to prominent tribal leaders in Teke and Aydın. Following the 1858 tax reform, the administration consolidated these two groups under a unified fiscal revenue system.
# ZÁVODSKÁ Milada

## Historical personality of Anna Danielová (1921-1999)

The paper focuses on the historical personality of Anna Danielová (1921-1999) : it examines the prerequisites that the talented Romani young girl student applied first in her education and later in her professional career. It explores the exceptional strength of Danielová's personal commitment with which she drew on her professional competencies for the better quality of life of Romani people in Czechoslovakia. Danielová's life story is thus interconnected not only with the activities of her older brother, Antonín Daniel (1913-1996), but also with other actors among the Romani intellectuals who have repeatedly opened a dialogue with the power structures of Czechoslovakia since the end of World War II.

The paper presents the results of several years of historical (archival) research, which has finally resulted in a complete and detailed biography of Anna Danielová. It reveals Danielová's original professional career as clerk (in civil service), together with her lifelong strong internal continuity of Romani identity, resulted in her work in the establishment (1968) and existence of Union of Gypsies-Roma (1969-1973). Danielová was among the most active staffers of this organization (UGR). Her work in the Commission of Former Concentration Camps Prisoners by UGR related to the agenda of the rehabilitation of Romani victims of the Holocaust has been documented in great detail. Moreover the paper brings it revelations of newly discovered historical phenomenon of „Commission of Women“ and its preparations within the Union of Gypsies-Roma, where Danielová was the important actor. The legacy of Anna Daniel's life's work places this woman among the important Romani female personalities in XX. century.
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

ÅBERG Kai Viljami, p. 104

Itä-Suomen yliopisto / University of Eastern Finland, Finland

kai.aberg@kolumbus.fi

AȘHIM Viorel, p. 69 and p. 71

Institutul de Istorie „Nicolae Iorga” al Academiei Române / Nicolae Iorga Institute of History, Romanian Academy, Romania

viorelachim@hotmail.com

Ašković Dragoljub +, p. 105

Музеј ромске културе у Београду / Roma Culture Museum in Belgrade, Serbia

ackovicd@yahoo.com

ACTON Thomas, p. 72

University of Greenwich; Bucks New University and Corvinus University, United Kingdom

thosacton@yahoo.co.uk

AHMED Ibram, p. 87

Dolni Chiflik, Bulgaria

baris2004@abv.bg

ANDRŠ Zbyněk, p. 97

Univerzita Pardubice / University of Pardubice, Czech Republic

zbynek.andrs@upce.cz
**ANDRŠOVÁ Kateřina, p. 106**

Univerzita Hradec Králové / University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

katerina.andrsova@uhk.cz

**ANGEBAULT Christophe, p. 107**

Professeur agrégé travaillant avec des élèves Voyageurs / School teacher working with Travelers, France

christopheangebault@hotmail.com

**ANWAR Mohammad Zameer, p. 47, p. 48 and p. 108**

Central University of Gujarat, India

rexzameer02@gmail.com

**BALÓ Márton A., p. 112**

Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont / Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, Hungary

baloam@gmail.com

**BEISSINGER Margaret H., p. 73**

Princeton University, USA

mhbeissi@princeton.edu

**BICZÓ Gábor, p. 109**

Debreceni Egyetem / University of Debrecen, Hungary

biczo.gabor@ped.unideb.hu

**BLOMQVIST Anders, p. 110**

Högskolan Dalarna / Dalarna University, Sweden

abq@du.se
**BÓDI Barbara, p. 111**

Magyar Művészeti Akadémia (MMA) / Hungarian Academy of Arts, Hungary

dr.boba.phd@gmail.com

**BODNÁROVÁ Zuzana, p. 112**

Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz / University of Graz, Austria

zuza.bodnarova@gmail.com

**BOYCE Melanie, p. 113**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

melanie.Boyce@aru.ac.uk

**CALLAHAN Courtney, p. 114**

Arizona State University, USA

ccalla10@asu.edu

**CASA-NOVA Maria José, p. 115**

Universidade do Minho / University of Minho, Portugal

mjcasanova@ie.uminho.pt

**ČERVENKA Jan, p. 86 and p. 88**

Univerzita Karlova / Charles University, Czech Republic

jan.cervenka@ff.cuni.cz

**CHERNYKH Aleksandr V., p. 60**

Уральское отделение Российской академии наук / Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

atschernych@yandex.ru
**CISNEROS Rosa, p. 126**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

romaplaceage@gmail.com

**CLANET DIT LAMANIT Elisabeth, p. 60 and p. 62**

Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale / French Ministry of National Education, France

dilamanit@gmail.com

**CLARK Colin, p. 116 and p. 117**

University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom

colin.clark@uws.ac.uk

**COKER Sophie, p. 113**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

sophie.coker@aru.ac.uk

**COOK Sophie, p. 149**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

miranda.millan@aru.ac.uk

**DELIĆ Vesna, p. 118**

Centar za očuvanje i razvoj kulture manjina Crne Gore / Public Institution Centre for the
Preservation and Development of the Culture of Minorities, Montenegro

vesrasulic@yahoo.com

**DEUTSCH James, p. 119**

Smithsonian Institution, USA

deutschj@si.edu
### DE VILLIERS Jill, p. 120

Smith College, USA

jdevilli@smith.edu

### DREWS-SYLLA Gesine, p. 53

Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg / University of Würzburg, Germany

gesine.drews-sylla@uni-wuerzburg.de

### DUNAJEVA Jekatyerina, p. 121

Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem / Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary

katyadunajeva@gmail.com

### EGI Ali, p. 122 and 139

Çankırı Karatekin Üniversitesi / Çankırı Karatekin University, Turkey

aliegi86@gmail.com

### FELJA Dada, p. 113

Advice Now/Law For Life - Community Lead, United Kingdom

dada.felja@advicenow.org.uk

### FILČÁK Richard, p. 148

Centrum spoločenských a psychologických vied, Slovenská Akadémia Vied (SAV) / Centre of social and psychological sciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

filcak.richard@gmail.com

### FRENCH Lorely, p. 100

French Pacific University, USA

frenchl@pacificu.edu
**GÁLIS Martin, p. 101 and p. 123**

Univerzita Karlova / Charles University, Czech Republic

Nadácia Dobrá rómska víla Kesaj / Foundation of Good Romani Fairy Kesaj, Slovakia

martin.galis@ff.cuni.cz

**GAMELLA Juan F., p. 124**

Universidad de Granada / University of Granada, Spain

gamella@ugr.es

**GERBERY Daniel, p. 125**

Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave / Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia

daniel.gerbery@uniba.sk

**GREENFIELDS Margaret, p. 113, p. 117 and p. 126**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

margaret.greenfields@aru.ac.uk

**HAJNÁCZKY Tamás Attila, p. 127**

Veszprémi Érseki Főiskola / Archiepiscopal College of Veszprém, Hungary

Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem / Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church, Hungary

hajnaczkyt@gmail.com

**HAJSKÁ Markéta, p. 54, p. 80 and p. 92**

Univerzita Karlova / Charles University, Czech Republic

marketa.hajska@ff.cuni.cz

**HALFDANARSON Guðmundur, p. 38**

Háskóli Íslands / University of Iceland, Iceland

ghalfd@hi.is
**HILAIRE Chantal, p. 89**

Toronto District School Board, Canada

chantal.hilaire@tdsb.on.ca

**HOOKER Lynn M., p. 128**

Indiana University-Bloomington, USA

lhooker@iu.edu

**HORVÁTH Nándor Zsolt, p. 129**

Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem (ELTE) / Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary

horvath.zsolt.9700@gmail.com

**HORVÁTHOVÁ Jana, p. 33**

Muzeum romské kultury / Museum of Romani Culture Brno, Czech Republic

horvathova@rommuz.cz

**HRUŠKOVÁ Dana Ema, p. 93**

Univerzita Karlova / Charles University, Czech Republic

hruskova68@seznam.cz

**HYDE Ann, p. 126**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

romaplaceage@gmail.com

**IWATANI Ayako, p. 130**

京都大学 / Kyoto University, Japan

glasshouse47@hotmail.com
**JOUANNIGOT Isabelle, p. 131 and p. 133**

Université Montpellier III Paul Valéry / University of Montpellier Paul Valéry, France
isajouannigot@free.fr

**JOVANOVIĆ Zlatomir, p. 17**

Udruženja romskih književnika / Association of Romani Writers, Serbia
romskouk@gmail.com

**KALININ Valdemar, p. 135**

Romany Sykliady / Romani school Slutsk, Belarus
kalininvaldemar@yahoo.com

**KAMUSELLA Tomasz, p. 136**

University of St Andrews, United Kingdom
tdk2@st-andrews.ac.uk

**KEHYA Rahime Özgün, p. 137**

Kafkas Üniversitesi / Kafkas University, Turkey
ozgunkehya@gmail.com

**KETELAAR Grainne, p. 57**

Atlantic Technological University, Ireland
grainne.ketelaar@atu.ie

**KOKYOVÁ Iveta, p. 94**

Univerzita Karlova / Charles University, Czech Republic
i.kokyova@seznam.cz
**KOSTKA Joanna, p. 113**

University of Lancaster, United Kingdom

j.kostka@lancaster.ac.uk

**KOVATCHEVA Lilyana, p. 138**

Vice President of the Gypsy Lore Society, Bulgaria

lilyana_kovatcheva@abv.bg

**KRISTJÁNSDÓTTIR Jasmín, p. 40**

Háskóli Íslands / University of Iceland, Iceland

jak24@hi.is

**KRISTON Lili, p. 46**

Moholy-Nagy Művészeti Egyetem / Moholy-Nagy University of Art & Design, Hungary

lili.kriston@gmail.com

**KYUCHUK Huseyin [KYUCHUKOV Hristo], p. 87 and p. 139**

Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach / University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland

hkyuchukov@gmail.com

**LARCHER Jonathan, p. 188140**

Université Paris-Nanterre / Paris Nanterre University, France

larcher.j@parisnanterre.fr

**LENGYEL Emese, p. 140**

Széchenyi István Egyetem (SZE) / Széchenyi István University, Hungary

lengyel.emese@sze.hu
## LOPES Fernanda, p. 143

Universidade Aberta (UAb) / Portuguese Open University, Portugal

fernanda.andlopes@gmail.com

## MAGANO Olga, p. 141 and p. 143

Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia (CIES-Iscte) / Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology, Portugal

olga.magano@uab.pt

## MAJO Juraj, p. 58 and p. 63

Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie, Slovenská akadémia vied / Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

uetnjuma@savba.sk

## MARINOV Aleksandar, p. 126

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

romaplaceage@gmail.com

## MARUSHIAKOVA Elena, p. 51, p. 56 and p. 81

Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie, Slovenská akadémia vied / Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

elena.marushiakova@savba.sk

## MATEI Petre, p. 69 and p. 75 and p. 82

Institutul Național pentru Studierea Holocaustului din România „Elie Wiesel” / Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Romania

matei.petre.ro@gmail.com
**MAUDUIT Leny, p. 83**

Médiathèque Matéo Maximoff / Matéo Maximoff Media Library, France

documentation@fnasat.asso.fr

**MCDONAGH Mary Leonie, p. 57**

Atlantic Technological University, Ireland

L00178254@atu.ie

**MIKLOŠOVIČ Tomáš, p. 125**

Ekonomický ústav, Slovenská Akadémia Vied (SAV) / Institute for Economic Research,

Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

tomas.miklosovic@uniba.sk

**MILLAN Miranda, p. 149**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

miranda.millan@aru.ac.uk

**MOCANU George D., p. 74**

Centrul European de Studii în Probleme Etnice, Academia Română / European Centre for

Ethnic Studies, Romanian Academy, Romania

george.damian@gmail.com

**MOREIRA Maria Alfredo, p. 115**

Universidade do Minho / University of Minho, Portugal

malfredo@ie.uminho.pt

**MORTEANU Crina, p. 126**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

romaplaceage@gmail.com
**NOWICKA Ewa, p. 160**

Uniwersytet Civitas / Civitas University, Poland

ewanowickarusek@gmail.com

**OLIVERA Martin, p. 34**

Université Paris 8 / University of Paris 8, France

martin.olivera@yahoo.fr

**OSLON Mihail, p. 91**

Instytut Języka Polskiego Polskiej Akademii Nauk (PAN) / Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

neoakut@gmail.com

**PANCHENKO Janush, p. 95**

Etnologický ústav Akademie věd České republiky / Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic

janushpanchenko@gmail.com

**PETCUȚ Petre, p. 76**

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) / National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations, France

petcutz@yahoo.com

**POPOV Veselin, p. 51 and p. 56**

Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie, Slovenská akadémia vied / Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

studiiromani@yahoo.com
**POVEDÁK István, p. 45**

Moholy-Nagy Művészeti Egyetem / Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Hungary

povedak@g.mome.hu

**POVEDÁK Kinga, p. 43 and p. 44**

Szegedi Tudományegyetem / University of Szeged, Hungary

povedakkinga@gmail.com

**RADLEY Chantal, p. 113**

University of Lancaster, United Kingdom

chantal.radley@aru.ac.uk

**RICHTÁRIKOVÁ Tereza, p. 145**

Muzeum romské kultury / Museum of Romani Culture Brno, Czech Republic

historie@rommuz.cz

**ROHT-YILMAZ Eva-Liisa, p. 64**

Tartu Ülikool / University of Tartu, Estonia

evaliisaroht@gmail.com

**ROMAN Raluca, p. 79**

Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom

raluca.roman@qub.ac.uk

**ROTARU Julieta, p. 69, p. 77 and p. 82**

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) / National Institute for
Oriental Languages and Civilizations, France

julieta.rotaru@inalco.fr
**SADÍLKOVÁ Helena, p. 84**

Univerzita Karlova / Charles University, Czech Republic

helena.sadilkova@ff.cuni.cz

**SILVA Daniela, p. 115**

Universidade do Minho / University of Minho, Portugal

dsilva@ie.uminho.pt

**SILVERMAN Carol, p. 146**

University of Oregon, USA

csilverm@uoregon.edu

**SINGH Punita G., p. 147**

Ashoka University, India

punita@gmail.com

**SINHA Rimjhim, p. 49**

Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwa Vidyalaya Wardha, India

rimjhimmh@gmail.com

**SIRBU Tatiana, 78**

Université catholique de Louvain / University of Louvain, Belgium

tatiana.sirbu@uclouvain.be

**SIXSMITH Judith, p. 126**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

romaplaceage@gmail.com
**ŠKOBLA Daniel, p. 148**

Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie, Slovenská akadémia vied / Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

danielskobla@gmail.com

**SKOVAJSA Ondrej, p. 101**

Univerzita Karlova / Charles University, Czech Republic

oskovajsa@gmail.com

**SLAVKOVA Magdalena, p. 65 and p. 81**

Институт за етнология и фолклористика с Етнографски музей, Българска академия на науките / Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgaria

chachipe@abv.bg

**SMITH David, p. 117 and p. 149**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

david.smith1@aru.ac.uk

**SMOLINSKA-POFFLEY Gaba, p. 126**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

romaplaceage@gmail.com

**SOLIMENE Marco, p. 39**

Háskóli Íslands / University of Iceland, Iceland

solimene@hi.is

**STOYANOVA Plamena, p. 150**

Институт за етнология и фолклористика с Етнографски музей, Българска академия на науките / Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgaria

flame1228@gmail.com
**SUIU Adriana, p. 41**

Háskóli Íslands / University of Iceland, Iceland

asuiu@hi.is

**TARNAI Anita, p. 99 and p. 102**

Open Society University, USA

tarnai.anita@gmail.com

**THEVENIN Candéla, p. 151**

Université de Tours / University of Tours, France

candela@online.fr

**TIRARD Aurore, p. 62, p. 85 and p. 133**

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) / National Institute for
Oriental Languages and Civilizations, France

aurore.tirard@inalco.fr

**TORAK Petr, p. 126**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

romaplaceage@gmail.com

**TOSI CAMBINI Sabrina, p. 154**

Università degli Studi di Parma (UNIPR) / University of Parma, Italy

sabrina.tosicambini@unipr.it

**TÓTH Norbert, p. 155**

Debreceni Egyetem / University of Debrecen, Hungary

tothnorbert0723@gmail.com
**VAIMAN Dmitry I., p.66**

Уральское отделение Российской академии наук / Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

dmitrii-vaiman@aus-russland.ru

**VARGA Helena Mária, p. 44**

Szegedi Tudományegyetem / University of Szeged, Hungary

vargahelenamaria@gmail.com

**VIKOVÁ Lada, p. 84, p. 92 and p. 156**

Univerzita Pardubice / University of Pardubice, Czech Republic

lada.vikova@upce.cz

**VITALE Tommaso, p. 35**

Sciences Po' Paris, Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée / Sciences Po' Paris, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, France

tommaso.vitale@sciencespo.fr

**VOJAK Danijel, p. 157**

Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar / Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pila, Croatia

danijel.vojak@pilar.hr

**WAMSIEDEL Marius, p. 158**

昆山杜克大学 / Duke Kunshan University, China

marius.wamsiedel@duke.edu

**WATABE Masako, p. 159**

Université Marie et Louis Pasteur / Marie and Louis Pasteur University, France

masakowatabe@free.fr
**WHITE Karin, p. 57**

Atlantic Technological University, Ireland

karin.white@atu.ie

**WITKOWSKI Maciej, p. 160**

Academia WSB / WSB University, Poland

mwitkowski@wsb.edu.pl

**WOOLRYCH Ryan, p. 126**

Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

romaplaceage@gmail.com

**YILGÜR Egemen, p. 161**

Yeditepe Üniversitesi / Yeditepe University, Turkey

tegemen1523@yahoo.com

**ZACHAR PODOLINSKÁ Tatiana, p. 27, p. 58, p. 63 and p. 66**

Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie, Slovenská akadémia vied / Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

tatiana.podolinska@savba.sk

**ZAHOVA Sofiya, p. 37 and p. 42**

Háskóli Íslands / University of Iceland, Iceland

zahova@hi.is

**ZÁVODSKÁ Milada, p. 162**

Univerzita Karlova / Charles University, Czech Republic

milada.zavodska@ff.cuni.cz
## SOCIAL EVENTS

### Book stand

The conference is pleased to welcome publishing houses related to Romani studies:

**Romani Studies journal** (represented by **Petre MATEI** & **Julieta ROTARU**): *Romani Studies, Continuing Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society*, founded in 1888 (new series 1902; third series 1922; fourth series 1974; fifth series 1991), is an Open Access journal published by Liverpool University Press on behalf of the Gypsy Lore Society. It receives funding from the Gypsy Lore Society that ensures the journal remains free and accessible to all readers. The journal publishes articles on history, anthropology, ethnography, sociology, linguistics, art, literature, folklore, and music, examining various aspects of cultures of groups traditionally known as Roma/Gypsies, as well as travellers or similar itinerant or nomadic groups. Romani Studies publishes two issues annually, in June and December, featuring approximately 5 articles per issue and several book reviews, totaling 180 pages. The journal welcomes co-editors who propose themed volumes. *Romani Studies* is the leading journal in the field, being indexed and abstracted in numerous databases, including:: America: History and Life, Anthropological Index Online, Anthropological Literature, Cabell's Whitelist, Historical Abstracts, IBZ/IBR, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, International Current Awareness Series, Linguistic Bibliography, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, MLA Bibliography, Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, RILM, Scopus, Sociological Abstracts and Social Sciences Citation Index, Web of Science.

Website: https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/rost

Contact: romanistudies.authors@gmail.com

**Etudes Tsiganes journal** (represented by **Lény MAUDUIT**): the French social science journal devoted to Roma, "Gypsies" and Travelers. It was created in 1955 and renewed as a new series has existed since 1993. It is the only French-language scientific journal dedicated to Roma, Manouches, Gitans, Sinti, Yéniches and *Gens du voyage* (French Travelers). Initially more akin to an association newsletter, the journal gradually evolved into a scientific publication. Among peer-reviewed journals, *Études tsiganes* stands out for the associative nature of its publication, which has never been called into question. Fnasat-Gv assumes the tasks, costs and responsibilities of publisher, while guaranteeing the complete independence of the Scientific Council. It is currently published in Paris by the FNASAT (Fédération Nationale des Associations Solidaires d'Action avec les Tsiganes et les gens du voyage), that assumes the tasks, costs and responsibilities of publisher, while guaranteeing the complete independence of the Scientific Council. The journal particularly encourages contributions from young researchers. The topic of each issue is decided by the editorial
academic board composed of researchers in history, sociology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, etc. All issues are available at the Matéo Maximoff media library.

Website: http://www.etudestsiganes.asso.fr/

Contact: revue@fnasat.asso.fr

**De Gruyter Brill publishing house:** De Gruyter Brill is a leading global academic publisher with a history dating back to the 17th century. Known for excellence in the humanities, social sciences, law, and more, the publisher offers high-quality books, journals, and digital resources to researchers and institutions worldwide. Through its imprint Brill | Schöningh, the publisher has become a key platform for Romani Studies. A milestone was the triptych (2021–2022): *Roma Voices in History* (2021); *Roma Writings* (2021), *Roma Portraits in History* (2022). These works laid the foundation for the acclaimed book series: Roma History and Culture Series. Established to integrate Roma history and culture into the mainstream of European and global scholarship. Published volumes include: *Shakir Pashov. History of the Gypsies in Bulgaria and Europe* (2023); *The Wallachian Gold-Washers. Unlocking the Golden Past of the Rudari Woodworkers* (2023); *Stalin vs Gypsies. Roma and Political Repressions in the USSR* (2024); *Papusza. Tears of Blood. A Poet's Witness Account of the Nazi Genocide of Roma* (2024); *Conversion, Leadership and Identity of the Evangelical Roma in Bulgaria* (2025); *Equality and Representation: Social and Political Engagement of Roma in Communist Czechoslovakia, 1948–1968* (forthcoming 2025); *Kaale Belongings and Evangelical Becomings: An Ethnography of Finnish Roma* (2025). With these pioneering works, Brill | Schöningh has established itself as a central hub for advancing Roma history and culture in international academia.

Website: https://brill.com/publisher/BDFS

Contact: kirsti.doepner@degruyterbrill.com

**Wallâda publishing house (represented by Françoise MINGOT):** Éditions Wallâda was founded in 1982 in Avignon, after a meeting with Father Fleury, chaplain of the Poitiers concentration camp and a great resistance fighter. The first collection was devoted to "Gypsies" with the initial work *Où vas-tu, Manouche?* by Joseph Doërr (out of print), followed in 1983 by *Un camp pour les Tsiganes et les autres* by Jacques Sigot on the Montreuil-Bellay Concentration Camp. Subsequently, other novels dedicated to Roma and "Gypsy" were published, stories, poetry, CDs (Lick, Ricardo, Miguel Dufour, Roberto Lorier, Joseph Stimbach), works of Matéo Maximoff (*Le prix de la liberté, Savina*) and Vania de Gila-Kochanowski (*Romano Atmo, Le roi des serpents, La prière des loups*).

Website: http://wallada.free.fr/

Contact: wallada@free.fr
**Notes de Nuit** publishing house (represented by Elisabeth WILLENZ): Notes de Nuit was founded in 2009 and now comprises three collections, all of which, mirroring each other, revolve around the Holocaust. Notably, the *Immediate Past* collection primarily publishes texts and diaries of deportees murdered in the death camps, forgotten words that we strive to rescue, as well as books and stories by those who survived. In 2023, the house published the translation of a historical essay, *Les Yeux d'Auschwitz* by Hans Hesse, which traces the persecution of a Sinti family from Bremen, Germany.

Website: https://www notesdenuit editions.net/

Contact: contact@notesdenuit-editions.net

**L'Asiathèque publishing house (represented by Leny MAUDUIT):** L'Asiathèque was first founded in 1973 as a bookstore specializing in Asian languages and cultures. It then developed as an independent publishing house, particularly in the field of language teaching in close collaboration with INALCO university (language handbooks, dictionaries, linguistics works, bilingual literature), and extended its scope of activities to the languages and cultures of Africa, Latin America and Central Europe. L'Asiathèque notably published *Dictionnaire tsigane-français, dialecte kalderash* by Georges Calvet.

Website: https://www.asiatheque.com/en/

Contact: info@asiatheque.com

**L'espace d'un instant publishing house (represented by Leny MAUDUIT):** The publications chosen by Espace d'un instant, partners of the Maison d'Europe et d'Orient, are mostly directly inspired by the rankings of the European theatre translation network Eurodram. The editorial line is mainly focused on contemporary writing, without neglecting gaps in the repertoire, within the framework of European, Central Asian and Mediterranean dramaturgy - from Iceland to Afghanistan. It particularly favours critical perspectives and theatrical research, linguistic diversity, and possible links with French-speaking theatre. These are almost exclusively theatre translations, with a few exceptions for French-speaking authors and theoretical works. Various anthologies (Bulgaria, Belarus, Caucasus, Croatia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey, Ukraine) have also been published. The latest work published by Espace d'un instant is the play by Roma actress and director Alina Șerban, *La grande honte* (The Great Shame).

Website: https://parlatges.org/

Contact: agence@parlatges.org
**Petra publishing house (represented by Patricia FERTÉ):** Petra specialises in humanities and social sciences, French and foreign literature, children's literature, comparative literature and philosophy. It has published several works on Romani studies, notably through the collection edited by Alain Reyniers, *Romané Chavé*, which aims to publish original scientific research in French, mainly related to anthropology, history, sociology and social geography, as well as similar reference works that are difficult to access for a French-speaking audience. The published works focus on “Tisganes” and related populations (Roma, Manouche, Sinti, Gitans, Yéniches, Travelers, etc.) living in France, Europe and elsewhere in the world. They contribute to enriching knowledge about these populations and to their recognition as fellow citizens.

Website: https://www.editionspetra.fr/

Contact: info@editionspetra.fr
## Exhibition about Matéo Maximoff:
A lifetime dedicated to creation and transmission

<figure><img src="image_44.png" /></figure>

Website: http://exposition-mateo-maximoff.fnasat.asso.fr/

Matéo Maximoff was interned with his family in French internment camps, and became one of the first to bear witness to the Roma genocide during the Second World War. His epic tales draw on family histories. Yono, Mateo's great-grandfather, a slave like many Roma in the Romanian principalities in the 19th century, inspired the hero of his novel *The Price of Freedom* (1955). Fantastic stories and tales passed down by Roma at wakes permeate these novels.

Several of these works are autobiographical. The intense life of this young, self-taught orphan is itself eminently romantic. He was a boilermaker, a traveling cinema projectionist, a critically acclaimed author of his first novels, *The Ursitory* (1946) and *Savina* (1957), a privileged contact for cinematographic productions on the Romani world, a translator of the *New Testament* into the Romani language, and a lecturer. He was also a photographer and filmmaker, author of a collection of more than 8,000 images and Super 8 films, which constitutes an invaluable testimony to the lives of Roma, Gitanos and Manouches over the course of half a century, in France and around the world.

This exhibition is based on his archives, deposited at the FNASAT-Gens du voyage media library that is named today *Médiathèque Matéo Maximoff*. We explore more than a century of Romani presence in France, but also, through the stories of their ancestors and the characters in their novels, the key events in "Gypsy" history around the world.

An exhibition organised by the Matéo Maximoff Media Library / FNASAT-Gens du voyage

Editorial concept by Evelyne POMMERAT, adaptation by Leny MAUDUIT.

Graphic design by Vincent DEVILLARD

With the kind contributions of Nouka MAXIMOFF and Antoine LE ROUX
Exhibition about the French Travelers

<figure><img src="image_45.png" /></figure>

© Gabi Jimenez: Fils de la lune

Voyageuses, Voyageurs, que veulent-ils ?

Website: https://mrap.fr/exposition-voyageuses-voyageurs-que-veulent-ils-et-livret-pedagogique.html

Booklet: https://mrap.fr/IMG/pdf/livret-mrap-36-hd.pdf

What do French Voyageurs want? They want... to travel, to choose their lifestyle, to be recognized as citizens, to work, for their children to go to school, to stay healthy, for the persecutions of 1940 to 1946 to be recognized, for an end to racism and discrimination. They are fighting for their rights.

The MRAP (Movement against racism and for friendship between peoples) created an exhibition on French Gens du Voyage Travelers, which includes 11 panels designed and produced based on Voyageurs' testimonies. It expresses their demands, evoking their perspectives on various aspects of their history and their current lives, while respecting their diversity.

Project conceived, organised and edited by the Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l'amitié entre les peoples (MRAP)
## Screening of Super 8 films by Matéo Maximoff

On the occasion of the GLS conference on Wednesday 24 September at 8.30 pm, the *Médiathèque Matéo Maximoff* will be hosting a screening of Super 8 films by Matéo MAXIMOFF, presented by anthropologist and filmmaker Jonathan LARCHER.

In the 1960s, Matéo Maximoff acquired a Super 8 camera and became a self-taught reporter. The 70 films in his archive reflect his many different interests: his life among the Roma people of Montreuil and the surrounding area, his stays with the Manouche people, Gitans Voyageurs throughout France, his travels to meet Roma people around the world, evangelical missions, and, from the 1970s onwards, the Roma congresses of the International Romani Union.

Jonathan Larcher wrote in *Images Re-vues* journal: “Matéo Maximoff’s films thus constitute a remarkable audiovisual chronicle of the movement of Romani men and women in the context of the emergence of the Gypsy Pentecostal movement and an international Romani political movement.”

Admission is free, but we kindly ask you to register: documentation@fnasat.asso.fr.

**Place:** Médiathèque Matéo Maximoff / Matéo Maximoff Media Library
59 Rue de l'Ourscq 75019 Paris (for practical information, see p. 200)

**Date:** Wednesday, 24 September 2025, 20.30 – 22.00

<figure><img src="image_46.png" /><figcaption>© Michèle Brabo: Matéo Maximoff – 1985</figcaption></figure>
Concert

On the occasion of the GLS conference on Thursday 25 September at 8.30 pm, the
*Médiathèque Matéo Maximoff* will be hosting a concert by a *Jazz Manouche* trio comprising
Dawson REINHARDT (guitar), Simba BAUMGARTNER (guitar), and Tom GUILLOIS (contrabass).
They are part of the pure tradition of Django Reinhardt's Manouche Jazz – Simba
BAUMGARTNER is also Django's great-grandson, and Dawson REINHARDT a cousin and
member of the family.

Admission is free, but we kindly ask you to register by email at the following address:
documentation@fnasat.asso.fr.

**Place:** Médiathèque Matéo Maximoff / Matéo Maximoff Media Library
59 Rue de l'Ourcq 75019 Paris (for practical information, see p. 200)

**Date:** Thursday, 25 September 2025, 20.30 – 22.00

<figure><img src="image_47.png" /><figcaption>Dawson REINHARDT</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_48.png" /><figcaption>Simba BAUMGARTNER</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_49.png" /><figcaption>Tom GUILLOIS</figcaption></figure>
# PRACTICAL INFORMATION

## Conference details

The conference features paper presentations and topic-focused panels. The panels are both pre-arranged and open.

The conference begins on the morning of Wednesday, September 24, 2025, and close on Friday evening, September 26. The working hours are from 9h30 to 12h30 and from 14h to 18h.

The total time for presentation of a paper is expected to be 30 minutes: 20 minutes for the paper and 10 minutes for discussion. The presentation languages are English, French and Romani.

Free Wi-Fi is available using Eduspot / Eduroam network. You can also use the specific local Wi-Fi network (name: **Campus Condorcet Colloques**) with the password **Campus93**!

Contact address: gypsyloreconference2025@gmail.com

## Condorcet Campus

The sessions and panels of the conference take place on the new humanities campus, a hub of conference and exhibition centre belonging to various research and universities in Paris, Campus Condorcet, Aubervilliers.

Campus Condorcet is France's largest and most modern urban campus, inaugurated in 2019. The campus hosts 11 universities and research institutions specialized in humanities and social sciences, including Ined, CNRS, EHESS, EPHE, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and the largest scientific library in France. Referred to as the City of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Campus is developed as a prominent hub for research, both in France and internationally. It offers a wide range of amenities and its surroundings are highly attractive due to their proximity to Paris, the National Archives, the City of Sciences and Industry, and many other attractions.

The Campus buildings are linked together by the *Cours des Humanités*. Arranged around a large research library, the site provides its users with the facilities to host researchers, students and course programmes, as well as all the necessary resources for life on campus. These facilities are shared between 11 buildings: Conference centre, EHESS research building, INED headquarters, Scientific incubator and Campus Condorcet (EPCC) Headquarters, Research library building, Cultural and associative centre, South research
building, North research building, Researchers' residence, Condorcet Alpha and Condorcet
Omega Student residences.

**Island 1:** a building that hosts research units, including dedicated areas for the CNRS, ENC, EHPE and the Université Paris 8. The ground-floor base for this building houses the student restaurant managed by CROUS de Paris, the ENC's archeology laboratory and 5 rooms seating between 25 and 50 people. Nearby, the Cultural and Associative centre is devoted to student initiatives. This island also includes a student residence.

**Island 2:** to the south of the GED, the INED headquarters, the Scientific Incubator and the EPCC headquarters are housed in the same building.

**Island 3:** a building that hosts research units from the Université Paris 1, Université Paris 3 and Université Paris 13, as well as a few EHESS units. The ground floor comprises 7 rooms seating between 25 and 50 people, as well as the socio-medical centre and union offices, which can be accessed via a separate entrance from rue des Fillettes. Within the same island, further south, is the Researchers' residence, the ground floor of which is occupied by the Faculty club and Conference centre. A brasserie is planned on the corner of avenue de la Métallurgie and rue Waldeck-Rochet.

Interactive map of the campus: https://www.campus-condorcet.fr/cartographie

**Campus Address:**
Campus Condorcet – Centre de colloques
Place du Front Populaire 93300 Aubervilliers
<figure><img src="image_50.png" /><figcaption>Campus map</figcaption></figure>

USEFUL INFORMATION

<figure><img src="image_51.png" /></figure>

Lunch pickup points

<figure><img src="image_52.png" /></figure>

Coffee breaks

<figure><img src="image_53.png" /></figure>

Welcome drinks garden

<figure><img src="image_54.png" /></figure>

Plenary sessions
& Registration

<figure><img src="image_55.png" /></figure>

Co-working spaces

<figure><img src="image_56.png" /></figure>

Side events

<figure><img src="image_57.png" /></figure>

Civil Society Forum

<figure><img src="image_58.png" /></figure>

Publishers & Journals
## City of Aubervilliers and tourism in Paris

Aubervilliers and its surrounding are major immigration districts in the Paris region, known for their remarkable cultural diversity. Exploring their urban landscapes provides a unique opportunity to discover the history and contemporary sociology and economics of migration throughout the 20th century. Condorcet campus is based in a thriving urban area, with real estate dynamics further accelerated by the hosting of the 2024 Olympic Games, a joint effort between Paris and Aubervilliers. During your stay for the 2025 GLS conference, you have the opportunity to discover a wide variety of places like:

* the historic centre of Paris with some historical places like the Sorbonne University.

* the landmarks along the metro line 12 that takes you from Aubervilliers to the South of Paris, passing on its way the Place de la Concorde (M12 Concorde), bordered on one end by the Jardin des Tuileries (M12 Concorde or M1 Tuileries) leading up to the Louvre (M1 M7 Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre), and the Champs-Elysées (M1 M13 Champs-Élysées-Clemenceau, or M1 George V, or M1 M9 Franklin D. Roosevelt, or M1 M2 M6 Charles de Gaulle - Étoile), leading up to the Arc de Triomphe (M1, M2 M6 Charles de Gaulle - Étoile) on the other; the Parliament building Assemblée Nationale (M12 Assemblée Nationale), the beautiful banks of the river Seine the Musée d'Orsay (M12 Solférino, or RER C Musée d'Orsay), if you feel like discovering some impressionist art.

* closer to the Campus Condorcet, you can discover the territory first-hand with the help of local guides called Les Hôtes Urbains -an association offering district tours guided by their inhabitants, focusing on the cultural and historic heritage.

<figure><img src="image_59.png" /></figure>
## Transportation to Major Landmarks

Here is a list of lines and stations to access Paris's must-see landmarks:

* **The Eiffel Tower**

**Metro:** Trocadéro Line 9, Bir-Hakeim Line 6, Ecole Militaire Line 8

**RER:** Champs de Mars – Eiffel Tower Line C

**Bus:** Eiffel Tower or Montessuy Bus 82, Eiffel Tower Bus 30, Champs de Mars Bus 86 or 69, Pont D'Iena Bus 72.

* **The Louvre**

**Metro:** Palais Royal / Louvre Museum Lines 1 and 7, Pyramides Line 14

**Buses:** Nos. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95

**Batobus:** "Louvre" stop, Quai François-Mitterrand. • Montmartre

**Metro:** Anvers and Blanche Line 2, Abbesses Line 12, Lamarck Caulaincourt Line 12 (To reach the back of the hill)

**Bus:** No. 40.

* **Arc de Triomphe**

**Metro:** Charles de Gaulle Etoile Lines 1, 2 and 6

**RER:** RER A

**Train:** Lines J and L

**Bus:** Charles de Gaulle Etoile No. 22, 52, 73, 92, 341.

* **Champs-Élysées**

**Metro:** Franklin Roosevelt Lines 1 and 9, Champs-Élysées Clémenceau Line 13

**Train:** Lines J and L

**Bus:** Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées No. 42, 72, 73, 80, 93.

* **Notre-Dame-de-Paris**

**Metro:** Mabillon Line 10, St Germain-des-Prés Line 4, Rennes Line 12

**RER:** RER B

**Train:** Lines L, N, TER

**Bus:** Saint-Sulpice Church No. 63, 70, 86, 96; Saint-Sulpice No. 84.

* **Palace of Versailles**

**RER:** RER C

**Train:** Lines L, N

**Bus:** Orangerie Gate No. 11, 40, 44; Palace No. 1, 14.

<figure><img src="image_60.png" /></figure>
Transportation network

We recommend installing the © Bonjour RATP app (https://www.bonjour-ratp.fr/) or © Île-de-France Mobilités (https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/). These applications allow you to build routes from one point to another, and can inform you in real time of any traffic disruptions. The metro and RER (Paris-suburb trains) timetables are fairly reliable – despite the inevitable and frequent technical and human problems. On the other hand, don't trust the bus timetables as these depend on the extremely unpredictable road traffic.

Campus Condorcet is located in Aubervilliers just on the outskirts of Paris, near one of the Paris airports (Roissy Charles de Gaulle, CDG). It benefits from the extensive regional public transport network. It is located just off the Front Populaire metro station (L12).

**Campus Address:** Campus Condorcet - Centre de colloques

Place du Front Populaire 93300 Aubervilliers

<figure><img src="image_61.png" /></figure>
## How to get there by public transport

Metro Ⓟ 12 **Front Populaire**

Busses Ⓟ 139, 153, 239, 302, 512 (**Front Populaire-Proudhon, Métallurgie, Proudhon**)

RER Ⓟ B La Plaine Stade de France, then take bus Ⓟ 139 and bus Ⓟ 239

RER Ⓟ E station **Rosa-Parks**, then take bus Ⓟ 239

Tram line Ⓟ 3B station **Porte de la Chapelle**, then take metro Ⓟ 12

## How to get there from Airport Charles de Gaulle

It takes around 1 hour to get to the campus. You can access it either

- taking the RER from the station Ⓟ B **Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 1 or 2** until the station Ⓟ B La Plaine Stade de France. Then taking the bus from the station Ⓟ 139 La Plaine Stade de France RER until Ⓟ 139 Front Populaire - Proudhon.

<figure><img src="image_62.png" /></figure>
- or taking the RER from the station 🐦 B Aéroport Charles de Gaulle **1 or 2** until the station 🐦 B Paris Gare du Nord. Then taking the metro from the same station 🐦 4 Gare du Nord until 🐦 4 Marcadet-Poissonniers. Then taking the metro from the same station 🐦 12 Marcadet-Poissonniers until 🐦 12 Front Populaire.

<figure><img src="image_63.png" /></figure>

## Where to eat next to the campus

**Cheap cafeteria food: the Student CROUS Restaurant** welcomes students, researchers and administrative staff from Monday to Friday from 11 am to 2:30 pm, on the ground floor of the North research building, 14 cours des Humanités. The restaurant cooks up a variety of dishes (vegetarian meals, grilled foods, salads, etc.) at reasonable prices.

Address: ground floor of the North research building, 14 cours des Humanités, Aubervilliers

https://www.campus-condorcet.fr/en/for-daily-life/food-and-drink/the-crous-student-restaurant

## Typical Parisian brasserie: Brasserie Le Front Populaire

Address: 3 rue des Fillettes 93210 Saint Denis

https://wiicmenu-qrcode.com/app/offre.php?r=258