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The tumultuous fate of European Roma and Sinti during the 20th century has seen their culture and very existence as a people challenged. Despite being subjected to intense assimilation policies and persecution, they regularly re-emerge with remarkable revitalizing power. Who are then the Roma and Sint and what does it mean to be Roma/Sinti from their point of view? In this course, we will learn about the historical and social adaptations of various Roma groups mainly in Europe but also in other regions around the world. Then we will focus on Central Europe as a region that has become the laboratory of policies addressing the allegedly troubling fit of the Roma/Sinti to modernity. The course will draw on the latest research on topics such as racialized modernity, memory building, political arenas and subjectivities, labor and class, center and periphery, gender, structural and political violence etc. This course will challenge mono-causal explanations and will stimulate students to think about and through Roma and Sinai experience in a critical way that brings into consideration the societies they live in. Building on a diverse selection of empirical material, ranging from ethnographic, historical, and sociological case studies to film and art, the course will present the Roma/Sinti “as good to think with” about contemporary societies.
Last update: Abu Ghosh Yasar, Mgr., Ph.D. (17.02.2025)
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Last update: Abu Ghosh Yasar, Mgr., Ph.D. (25.02.2025)
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Grading of Assignments The grade for this course will be determined according to the following formula:
Last update: Abu Ghosh Yasar, Mgr., Ph.D. (25.02.2025)
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Study packages as well as update course information are available in the course MS Teams interface: Spring25_Anthropological approaches to the study of Roma | General | Microsoft Teams Last update: Abu Ghosh Yasar, Mgr., Ph.D. (27.02.2025)
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Assignment 1 – Class Journal A learning journal is a record of the learning process that you are doing for the course, of the doubts, questions and insights that have arisen for you as you have participated in the classes and done your own reading. Its purpose is to enhance your learning through the very process of writing and thinking about your learning experiences. The aim is for you to reflect on what you are learning and how you are learning it. Questions and doubts are as important here as asserting what you know. Throughout the semestre you will be required to submit three Class Journals, two before mid-term (main component of your mid-term assessment), one towards the end of the semestre (for the dates see Sylabus). Consult the separate document for details on how to write a CJ.
Assignment 2 – Reading Presentation The syllabus contains references to other texts used in the lectures. These are not mandatory but highly suggested to those interested in each topic. Feel free to get creative about your presentations; however, you should at least present the readings’ main points (10 minutes), provide discussion questions for the class (2 questions), and organize and run the discussion (10min). You can choose the dates of your presentation in a spreadsheet that will be shared online. You should also upload your presentations in the assigned folder. There are two readings assigned to each seminar session, therefore two presentation will take place every week. Last update: Abu Ghosh Yasar, Mgr., Ph.D. (25.02.2025)
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Week 1 25.2. Class overview, schedule of presentations, mid-term exam requirements, final paper requirements and topics Naming the Roma/Gypsies – from nomenclature to politics of naming
Week 2 4.3. Epistemologies Stewart, M. 2013. Roma and Gypsy Ethnicity as a Subject of Anthropological Inquiry. Annual Review of Anthropology: 415-432. Stefania Pontrandolfo and Marco Solimene. Flexible Epistemologies: Gypsy/Roma Thinking and Anthropology Theory NOMADIC PEOPLES 24 (2020): 228–240 doi: 10.3197/np.2020.240204 Michael Stewart, Roma People, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.12082-3, (748-753), (2015).
Week 3 11.3. Politics of Identity Roman, R. B. (2018). “Neither here, nor there”: Belonging, ambiguity, and the struggle for recognition among “in-between” Finnish Kaale. Romani Studies, 28(2), 239-262. Martin Fotta, Non-sedentarism, Violence and Politics of Assertive Egalitarianism among Calon Gypsies of Bahia, Brazil, Ethnos 84, 5, (806-827), (2018).
Week 4 Ethnography and Writing 18.3. Iliana Sarafian. 2024. Roma Ethnographies of Grief in the COVID- 19 Pandemic. In Ethnographic Methods In Gypsy, Roma And Traveller Research: Lessons from a Time of Crisis. Martin Fotta and Paloma Gay y Blasco (eds). Bristol University Press. Gay y Blasco, Paloma, Liria Hernández, Paloma Gay y Blasco, and Liria Hernández. "Writing friendship." Writing Friendship: A Reciprocal Ethnography (2020): 81-108.
Week 5 25.3. Social escapes, social margins Bourgois, P. 1995. Introduction. In In Search of Respect, pp. 1-18 Gmelch, S. B. 1986. Groups that don’t want: Gypsies and other artisan, trader, and entertainer minorities. Annual Review of Anthropology 15: 307-330. S. Day et al. 2000. Consider the Lilies of the Field. In Lilies of the Field, pp. 1-24. Fotta, M. 2019 'Only the dead don't make the future': Calon lives between non-Gypsies and death. JRAI: 1-19. Williams, P. 1982. The Invisibility Of The Kalderash Of Paris. Urban Anthropology 11 (3/4): 315-346.
1.4. Easter Monday – no classes
Week 6 8.4. Local histories of Czech and Slovak Roma Ort, J. 2022. Belonging, mobility, and the socialist policies in Kapišová, Slovakia. Romani studies 32 (1): 23–50. Sadílková H. 2020. The Postwar Migration of Romani Families from Slovakia to the Bohemian Lands. A Complex Legacy of War and Genocide in Czechoslovakia. In Čapková K., Adler E. Jewish and Romani Families in the Holocaust and its Aftermath. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, p. 190-217.
Week 7 15.4. Gendered Perspectives Tauber, E. 2008. Do you remember the time we went begging and selling?... In Romani/Gypsy Cultures in New Perspectives. J. Ries, J. Fabian eds. Paloma Gay Y Blasco. 2011. Agata's story: singular lives and the reach of the ‘Gitano law’. JRAI 17(3): 445-461.
Week 8 22.4. Labor Entanglements Elana Resnick, The Intimacy of Labor, Public Culture 35, 2, (233-254), (2023). Grill, J. 2018. Re-learning to labour? ‘Activation Works’ and new politics of social assistance in the case of Slovak Roma. JRAI 24 (1): 105-119.
Week 9 29.4. Mobilities Yıldız, Can, and Nicholas De Genova. 2017. “Un/Free Mobility: Roma Migrants in the European Union.” Social Identities 24 (4): 425–41. De Genova, N. 2018. The Securitization of Roma Mobilities and the Re-bordering of Europe. In The Securitization of the Roma in Europe. van Baar, H., Ivasiuc, A., Kreide, R. (Eds.) Kóczé, Angéla. 2018. “Race, Migration and Neoliberalism: Distorted Notions of Romani Migration in European Public Discourses.” Social Identities 24 (4): 459–73. Raluca Bianca Roman. 2018. Roma Mobility, Beyond Migration: Religious Humanitarianism and Transnational Roma Missionary Work as De-Constructions of Migration. Intersections. East European Journal Of Society And Politics, 4(2): 37-56.
Week 10 6.5. Racialization as a structure Černušáková, B. 2020. Stigma and segregation: containing the Roma of Údol, Czech Republic. Race & Class 62:1, 46-59. Grill, J. (2018). ‘In England, they don’t call you black!’Migrating racialisations and the production of Roma difference across Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44(7), 1136-1155.
13.5. Rector’s Day – no lasses
Week 11 13.5. Violence and Memory I Group presentations
Week 12 20.5. Violence and Memory II Group presentations Last update: Abu Ghosh Yasar, Mgr., Ph.D. (25.02.2025)
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