Abstract:
This lecture talks about the history of Roma in the Republic of North Macedonia, from their arrival on Macedonian soil until today. In addition, the lecture focuses on the sedentary (arlism) of Roma, their number in the censuses made in the Rumelia vilayet in the XVI and XIX century, their life and their interaction with non-Roma in Macedonia.
The lecture will also talk about the names and characteristics of the Roma Arli groups and their occupations that have been changing throughout the history from the XIV to the XX century.
The lecture also covers the assimilation, discrimination, and ethnic stratification of Roma in the Republic of Macedonia throughout history.

Bio:
D.Sc. Ljatif Demir (1961, Skopje) is a professor of Romani language, literature and culture at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Philosophy – Department: Indology, at the Master studies of Romistics.
He has been working on promotion of the Romani language, literature and culture for more than 30 years. He is the author of professional works such as: The Grammar of the Romani language, Culture of the Roma in Macedonia, Roma in the Macedonian literature, music and film, Short history on Roma and others.
He has completed numerous translations in Romani language, participated in various international conferences and symposia, and held lectures on Romani studies at many European universities.

Lecture (Romanes subtitles):

Lecture with English subtitles here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tyjxvyMQDs

Webinar: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanRomaInstituteERIAC/videos/4640920215953289

Abstract:
The lecture will make an overview of the history of Bulgarian Roma starting from the Ottoman Empire, through the First and Second World Wars, during the Communism and after the democratic changes- last 30 years.
In the lecture Prof. Dr. Kycuhukov will refer to Archie materials from Bulgaria as well as to publication based on his own research and other researches.

Bio:
Prof. Dr. Hristo Kyuchukov is a scientist (born and raised up in Bulgaria) full professor at the Silesian University in Katowice, Poland, and an academician at the International Russian Academy of Educational Sciences (МАНПО) in Moscow, Russia. He is known in Europe and worldwide for his psycholinguistic research with Roma and Turkish children, his research on intercultural education, on Roma and Turkish language, on Roma history and culture.
Prof. Kyuchukov is the Director of the Roma Research Centre at the University of Katowice, Poland and the President of the European Roma Scholars Network, based in Berlin.
In the 1990s, Prof. Kyuchukov introduced Roma language education for primary and secondary school children in Bulgaria, as well as university-level Romani language education programs in Bulgaria and Slovakia.
He is also the author of over 800 scientific publications and books for children in Romani, English, Bulgarian, Turkish and Arabic languages.

Lecture (Romanes subtitles):

Lecture with English subtitles here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNZO03E0lYc

Webinar: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanRomaInstituteERIAC/videos/553842739170855

Ignorancia supina (definición RAE)

Abstract:

The Romani People, Indian in origin, European in concretion and transnational in its projection, continues to be the great unknown, not to say ignored, both by the citizenry and by the scientific and academic community.

We consider that the absence of Romani studies, ‘Romology’, from Spanish university curricula is a consequence of the secular institutional anti-Roma racism.

Romani culture has been part of Spanish culture for 600 years during which both cultures have interacted mutually. The existence of a Romani component in Spanish culture and a Spanish component in Romani culture is unavoidable. In order to understand the complexity of both cultures, both past and present, it is necessary to incorporate the romani perspective.

Bio:
Araceli Cañadas Ortega, was born in Madrid in June 1969, she belongs to a prestigious flamenco artists family, recognized nationally and internationally.

Degree on Hispanic Philology. Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid). 1992.

Master on Professional Training of Spanish Language Teachers: Specialty Spanish as a Foreign Language.

In 1992 she first got in contact with the Associative Romani Movement. She attended her first Romani Congress in 1992, held in Barcelona. She started working for the Spanish Romani Union in 1994. She created a literacy work and Social Institutions approach programs for Romani women. She was school support program coordinator and teacher.

In 2000 her only daughter was born and she was dedicated exclusively to her.

In 2007 she returned to the Romani Movement, collaborating in the establishment of the Spanish Romani Culture Institute. She was Spanish Romani Culture Institute assessor. She also participated in the design of a Romani language teaching method for Spanish Roma, “Sar san? ¿Cómo estás?”

From 2011 until nowadays she is honorary professor of the subject “Spanish Roma. History and Culture” at Universidad de Alcalá. Her research and professional activities are at the areas of History, Language and Culture of Roma people; as well as History, Language and Culture of Spanish Roma people and all the relations and contributions among Romani Culture and Spanish Culture (Literature, Theatre, Language, Arts…).

Solidarity Award for educational work, X Premios Enrique Maya Edition. Community of Madrid, 2018

She is a member of Camelamos Roma Standing Conference Spain.

Lecture (Romanes subtitles):

Lecture with English subtitles here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65TzGYzGZug

Webinar: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanRomaInstituteERIAC/videos/284536789969281

Abstract:

The topic of the lesson is the presence of Roma and Sinti in Italy, their arrival in 5 migratory waves from the fifteenth century to today, the numerical consistency and their spread, their trades and other known and less known peculiarities. A journey of real knowledge of the Italian Romani communities beyond stereotypes and false myths.

Bio:
Santino Spinelli, aka Alexian, is an Italian Roma. Musician, composer, poet, essayist and university teacher, he was awarded the title of Commander of the Italian Republic, as well as the Emilio Lussu Prize. In 2016 he was awarded the honorary citizenship of Laterza (Taranto). He founded the European Peace Orchestra by elevating Romani folk music to a symphonic level. Graduated in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures and in Musicology at the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, he is the author of numerous publications, including “Roma, free people” (2012), “Roma, these strangers” (2016) and “A community to know” (2018).

Lecture (English subtitles):

Webinar: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1020083045441853​

Abstract:

Together with my husband János Bársony we have been researching – for nearly five decades – the customs, culture and history of Roma. Roma history – that probably doesn’t even exist, since we do not have a church, a written culture, intelligentsia, and until today we do not have institutions. The written documents on Roma are mainly about conflicts. But in a few travel diaries and books of taxes we can find traces about the busy everyday lives and the centuries-long coexistence.

From these mosaics you can see that we are a peace-loving, cooperating nation, that tries to make a living from its knowledge and services…

The question is: do we have the freedom and possibility to teach these theses to the world? Or in other words: Who will create the Romani narrative of our common history?

Short Bio:

Agnes Daroczi is the founder of Romedia Foundation. She is a journalist, editor-presenter and a public educator, creator and an author of various books and documentary films. She organized the countrywide exhibition of Romani visual artists, which was a novelty during socialism. She was the founder and editor of the first Romani television program ’The Patrin’ running weekly 25 minute shows in the Hungarian Television (1992-1998). She organized the first and second Roma days in the history of Hungarian Television. Daroczi also works as an ethnologist, cultural manager and as an artist. Daroczi is the filmmaker behind the films Historia Romani documentary series (1999-2005) and the Memento in Music – Auschwitz Requiem (2015). She is a human rights activist, who fights for the social justice and the acceptance of Romani people and institutionalization and recognition of Romani culture in Europe and beyond. She is also the author behind various books and publications including Pharrajimos: The fate of Roma during the Holocaust (2005) and Kali Trash (2015). Her activity and efforts were rewarded with many awards and international honors.

Lecture (Romanes subtitles)

Lecture with English subtitles here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa_6uN08BB4

Webinar: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanRomaInstituteERIAC/videos/4400810580000431

Drd. Adrian-Nicolae Furtună: Istoria Romilor din România din Perspectiva Memoriei Sociale

Rezumat:

Lucrarea de față își propune să sublinieze importanța includerii istoriei romilor în narațiunea istoriei României în general. Includerea în narațiunea istorică din România  a robiei romilor, a Holocaustului din România și a asimilării romilor din perioada comunistă are rolul de a crea punțile către împăcarea cu trecutul istoric și educarea noilor generații într-un spirit al valorilor europene. În prezentarea mea dezbat rolul conținutului istoric al memoriei colective și cel al memoriei sociale ca factori decisivi în conservarea și formarea identității etnice. De asemenea, pe baza documentelor de arhivă, demonstrez că dezvoltarea economică și culturală a romilor  a fost blocată de factori specifici fiecărei perioade istorice luate în discuție: robie, perioada modernă, perioada interbelică, al Doilea Război Mondial, perioada comunistă.

Scurtă biografie:

Adrian-Nicolae Furtună a absolvit Facultatea de Sociologie și Asistență Socială  a Universității din București, secția Sociologie, și programul de masterat Cercetare Sociologică Avansată. În prezent este doctorand cu o temă  despre memoria socială a sclaviei romilor, la Institutul de Cercetare a Calității Vieții al Academiei Române. Din 2010 și până în prezent a publicat o serie de articole de istorie orală și articole științifice despre sclavia romilor și deportarea romilor în Transnistria, inclusiv: „De ce nu plâng? Holocaustul romilor și povestea lui adevărată ”(2012):„ Cultura romilor între „bărci de carton” și realitate (2015); Romii din România și Holocaustul. Istorie, teorie, cultură (2018); Sclavia romilor în Țara Românească. Fragmente de istorie socială. Vânzări / donații de copii. Căsătorii. Petiții pentru emancipare (2019). „Deportarea familiilor soldaților romi în Transnistria: între„ greșeli” administrative și imperativele biopolitice” (Furtuna et al., 2020). Este directorul Centrului de Cercetari Culturale și Sociale „Romane Rodimata” și consilier în cadrul Departamentului de Documentare și Cercetare al Centrului Național de Cultura a Romilor din România.

Abstract:

This paper aims to emphasize the need of including Roma history in the narrative of Romanian history in general. The inclusion of the Roma slavery, the Roma Holocaust and the assimilation of Roma from the communist period in the historical narrative of Romania has the role of creating bridges to reconciliation with the historical past and educating new generations in a spirit of European values. In my presentation I discuss the role of the historical content of collective memory and that of social memory as decisive factors in the preservation and formation of the ethnic identity. Also, based on archive documents, I demonstrate that the economic and cultural development of Roma was stopped by specific factors for each historical period under discussion: slavery, modern period, interwar period, World War II, communist period.

Short Bio:

Adrian-Nicolae Furtună graduated from the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, the Department of Sociology of the University of Bucharest and the master’s program in Advanced Sociological Research from the same university. Currently prepares his PhD thesis on the social memory of Roma slavery, at the Quality of Life Research Institute of Romanian Academy.

Since 2010 and until now he has published a series of oral history papers and scientific articles on Roma slavery and Roma deportation to Transnistria, including: „Why don’t they cry? Roma Holocaust and its true story” (2012): „Roma culture between „cardboard boats” and reality (2015); Romanian Roma and the Holocaust. History, theory, culture (2018); Roma slavery in Wallachia. Fragments of social history. Children sales/donations. Marriages. Petitions for emancipation (2019). „The deportation of Roma soldiers’ families to Transnistria: Between administrative “mistakes” and biopolitical imperatives” (Furtuna et al., 2021). He is the director of Cultural and Social Research Center „Romane Rodimata” and counselor in the Documentation and Research Department of National Centre of Roma Culture from Romania.

Lecture (English subtitles)

Webinar: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=208646781352348

Abstract:

The lecture is devoted to ethnic history, traditions, peculiarities of culture and everyday life, peculiarities of migration and formation of ethnic groups, demographic processes and modern ethnosocial development of Roma in Russia. The ethnic factor was particularly acute in the real phenomena of public life in the era of political and economic upheavals associated with the collapse of such multinational states as the USSR. All these areas of activity are considered in detail by the author; it is concluded that all these measures were conceived and implemented without proper preparation and consideration and, of course, ended in complete failure. Even such a wonderful undertaking as publications in the Romani language only led to a large amount of political propaganda; this undermined any interest of Roma in reading.

Short Bio:

Demeter Nadezhda Georgievna, Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor, Leading Researcher at the Center for European Studies at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Graduated from the Department of Ethnography of the Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University, the most famous in Russia. In 1988, she defended her PhD thesis on the topic “Family ceremonialism the Roma-Kelderary (XIX – XX centuries).” In 2000, she defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic “Roma of Europe: Problems of Ethno-Cultural History” at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She made a significant contribution to the study of the ethnopolitical and ethno-cultural appearance of the Roma of Europe. Currently, she is working on studying a set of problems that have arisen among national minorities in Eastern European countries after the collapse of authoritarian regimes in the context of reforming societies. She has more than 100 scientific works about Roma, including 3 monographers.

Lecture (English subtitles)

Webinar: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanRomaInstituteERIAC/videos/271300398336886/

Abstract:

Historiography, history, historians and Gypsies (les Tsiganes) … Poets and literature say of us that our soles are made of wind. Thus, what kind of traces can we leave, with soles of wind? What traces can we leave in written sources, sources that are written by others, never by us?

These few pages about “The Roma of the official journal of the French Republic” are, above all, a warning against the possible distortions of academic research, and aim at questioning the production of the sources themselves, and to prevent researchers from leaping from the relative to the absolute in their conclusions. I warn them against the fascination with teratology, this study that focuses on anomalies in living things.

It is said that happy people have no history … It is less often said that a people in poverty can nonetheless generate a lot of revenue. I write about the importance of not confusing a part with the whole, of not confusing a small percentage of Gypsies that find themselves in difficulty (not a much greater percentage than the rest of society) with the totality of the Gypsy people who live in France.

I articulate, in these few pages, the reflection of Mrs. Nadège Ragaru, namely that ʺour social trajectories are not only limited to downward mobilityʺ

Short Bio:

I was born, a decade after the end of the war, into a family still full of uncles, aunts, relatives, cousins.

I started working as a carpenter as soon as I obtained my high school diploma, and I continued working in this field, fascinated by this very technical learning made of construction sites, challenges, constraints and achievements in carpentry and construction.

Until the day when my political commitment turned me into a parliamentary assistant. This is usually a profession reserved for those who have graduated from elite academic institutions such as Sciences Po, but who nonetheless include a few self-taught people capable of responding to the demands of the deputy or senator who employs them.

It is a job in which one learns, observes, works a lot, takes risks, and ends up understanding the processes and mechanisms of our society, at all its different levels: the family, the association, the municipality, the department, the region, the state level, Europe, etc.

And the Gypsies? They call me on the phone and say: – My good cousin, I received a very bad letter from the administration …

Lecture (English subtitles)

Webinar: https://business.facebook.com/EuropeanRomaInstituteERIAC/videos/1042635582976168/

Abstract:

History does not only tell us what happened, it is also about what is hidden and what is highlighted. The one who writes history chooses how an event is described. The storyteller writes history from their own perspective and decides who is bad or good, pure or dirty, honest and dishonest. You are now about to listen to my short description of the history of the Romani people and the anti-ziganism that was and still is existing in Sweden and Europe.

The first Swedish notes on this matter are written in the Stockholm Annals on September 29th 1512. In the book there is talk about a strange community of people with foreign looks, strange ways and an incomprehensible language who has entered the country. There are 30 something families who set up camp in the city. The reformer Olaus Petri refers to them the same year as ‘tatare’, perhaps thinking they belonged to the Russian Tater people. The group is described in the Annals as ‘Egyptians’ and given pilgrim status. Pilgrims were to be respected so they were given alms and roof over their heads, all according to the rules regarding the welcoming of strangers. These people are viewed today as the first Roma immigrants in Sweden and the Nordic countries. 

The Romani people are met with discrimination and anti ziganism throughout the 20th century. They are investigated, categorized, registered and stigmatized because of this. Romani people were seen as a threat to the welfare state and the rational and modern man that were to emerge in Sweden. The Roma traditional way of living and strong family values did not fit the idea of the new and neat Sweden.

In the year 2000 it is recognized that the Roma/Traveller minority consists of five groups: the Traveller people, the Swedish Roma, the Finnish Roma, the non-Nordic Roma and the newly arrived Roma.

The Romani people of Sweden exists both in the present and in the past. In the story of the Romani people of Sweden there is abuse and alienation where the majority and those in power failed in many ways and did not take responsibility. But it is also a story of a strong community within the group and of the importance of family. There are also stories of friendship, kinship and kindness in the majority population and we are keeping on writing our history.

Short Bio:

Britt-Inger Hedström Lundqvist was born in Skellefteå Västerbotten December 1958 into a tarveller family. Britt-Inger worked in the social field her entire professional life and studied the subjects e such as psychology, psychotherapy, sociology, pedagogy, treatment methods and so on.

She has a university degree in Social Work (2011)

She holds a MA of Ethnology (2012)

Britt-Inger participated in several anthologies including ‘Disturbing homogeneity’ and worked as editor in the book ‘Dinglarens väg – Vorsnos drom’, the first book written in Sweden with Traveller people took part in writing their own history.

She is a secretary in the traveller association RUNG and the editor of the newspaper DIKKO.

Proud and strong. The traveller people, a bachelor study
http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:510075/FULLTEXT02.pdf

http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A510075&dswid=6447

Lecture (English subtitles) 

Webinar: https://business.facebook.com/EuropeanRomaInstituteERIAC/videos/872967856751835/ 

Abstract:

The lecture is divided into three parts. Firstly, it deals with the systematic registration, exclusion, deportation and finally the extermination of 500,000 of our people by the National Socialists and their helpers in Europe. The National Socialist extermination sites such as Auschwitz, Chelmno or Treblinka, like Dachau, Buchenwald or Bergen-Belsen have become symbols today – meanwhile also for the systematic genocide of the Sinti and Roma in Nazi-occupied Europe. There is hardly a family among the Sinti and Roma who does not associate the name “Auschwitz” with the loss of relatives.

In the second part, the lecture shows the difficult path that the few survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants had to take after the war in order to finally be recognised as racially persecuted victims and receive compensation after years of struggle. Coming to terms with the Holocaust against the minority, which had been denied for decades, as well as highlighting the ideological and personal continuities from the Nazi era, were central components of the political commitment of the civil rights movement and the Central Council from the very beginning.

In the third part, the lecture looks at the work and successes of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma since the early 1980s. The work of the Central Council has always been about liberating members of the minority from the stigma of being foreigners and raising awareness of the fact that Sinti and Roma have been at home in Germany and in other European countries for centuries, whose history and culture they have helped to shape. After almost forty years of civil rights work, a gradual change in the way our minority is treated and perceived by the public can be felt in German society. Politically, much has been achieved, but socially there is still a long way to go.

Short Bio:

Romani Rose was born in Heidelberg in 1946. There he was a self-employed businessman until 1982. When the Central Council was founded in 1982, he was elected chairman by the delegates of the member organizations – at that time nine, today 18 state associations and regional associations – and since then he has been confirmed in office every four years at the general meetings. In 1991, Rose took over the management of the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg. He has been known for many years by the federal and state governments and also abroad for his determination and for consistent and unyielding work.

Lecture (English subtitles)

Webinar: https://business.facebook.com/EuropeanRomaInstituteERIAC/videos/181331194206959/

Abstract:

Starting with the early appearance of Roma in the world, Edis Galushi in his lecture “History of Roma in Kosovo” elaborates in more detail on the daily life of Roma in this country. In addition to the historical facts and the historical journey of the Roma, he briefly explains the life of the Roma in Kosovo and the development of social, economic and political life. The video lecture prepared especially for this occasion gives a brief overview of the important areas of Kosovo’s Roma with reference to the past and present.

Short Bio:

Edis Galushi was born on March 6, 1989 in Prizren. In addition to youth activism, he has contributed to the inclusion of Roma children, besides the initiation of the first Roma children’s newspaper; he has also composed for the first time songs for children in the Roma language, enabling the children to participate in different festivals. After enrolling at university, Edis Galushi wrote various articles about the social, economic and political life of the Roma community, which have been published in various portals and newspapers. It is worth mentioning his contribution to the heritage of Roma culture and literature through poetry and theatrical performances, most of which he wrote himself and is among the rarest Roma authors in Kosovo. He is usually seen to act as an independent cultural activist, raising his concerns on the good representation of the Romani culture in general. From 2007-2014 he worked as a journalist at Radio Television of Kosovo. He received his BA diploma in English language and literature from both University of Pristina (Kosovo) and University of Vilnius (Lithuania), and has recently gained his MA degree at the University of Zagreb. Currently, he works as a teacher and translator for Albanian, English and Serbian.

Lecture video (English subtitles)

Webinar: https://business.facebook.com/EuropeanRomaInstituteERIAC/videos/473223257468092/

Abstract:

The history of the Roma in the Czech lands: Their first mention in the historical record, their initial acceptance, and the relatively remarkable usage of the concept of the “Gypsy”, the names and the nicknames. The reasons for the change in the majority population’s attitude towards the Roma and its consequences, including the repression of the Roma, will be outlined. Even at the time of the greatest anti-Gypsy repression, at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, the process of the permanent settlement of the Roma in Moravia began and continued throughout the 19th century. After the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, attention was paid to the already controversial law on forcibly settling the “wandering gypsies”. After the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, when the truncated Czech lands were occupied by the Nazi German Empire after the 1938 Munich Agreement, all the fundamental regulations already in force in Germany applied in relation to the Protectorate Roma. This resulted in the mass deportation of the local Roma population to the Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, where the vast majority – 90% – perished. It is correct to call this the genocide of the Roma and Sinti. After the 1945 liberation, Roma from Slovakia also came to the Czech lands with the support of recruiters, who found them the housing that was so difficult to find in Slovakia, especially in the northern industrial areas of Bohemia and Moravia, where the most problematic, socially excluded Roma localities exist to this day. After 1948, the totalitarian regime sought the forced assimilation of the so-called gypsies, and the destruction of their culture and traditional values was meant to aid that assimilation.

Short Bio:

PhDr. (philosophiae doctor) Jana Horváthová, born in Brno in 1967, comes from a family of indigenous Czech, respectively Moravian Roma; lives and works in Brno. She is a historian and a museologist, a co-founder (1991) of the Museum of Romani Culture and is its long-time director. Her scholarly work focuses on the history of the Roma in the first half of the 20th century. She is interested in historical Roma groups that were coming to the Czech lands from the end of the 17th century and during the WWII became the subject of Nazi genocide; she mainly focuses on the method of oral history. She lectures on the history, spiritual and material culture of the Roma. She published Kapitoly z dějin Romů. (Chapters from the History of the Roma), Prague, 2002; Devleskere čhave. Svedectvom starých pohľadníc (The Testimony of Old Postcards). Poprad, 2006; Treasure of the Roma / Amare somnaka. The secret of Romani Jewellery: Muzeum romské kultury, 2016; Horváthová, Jana and others: To jsou těžké vzpomínky (They are painful memories), Větrné mlýny, 2021.

Lecture video (English subtitles)

Webinar: https://business.facebook.com/EuropeanRomaInstituteERIAC/videos/211977544431416/

Abstract:

The history of Roma from the time of their arrival on the Balkan Peninsula to the end of the 20th century covers several important periods. This is primarily the time of Turkish rule when a large number of Roma arrived in South Slavic countries. The first news about the Roma in Serbia comes from the reign of Emperor Dušan (1331-1335). Data from the oldest preserved Turkish census from 1491 show that the Roma lived in Prizren, Nis, Krusevac, and Smederevo. In the 17th and 18th centuries, there were large immigration movements of Roma to Serbian lands. The migration of the Serbian people to the South Slavic countries under Austro-Hungarian rule in 1690, as well as the transfer of Roma from Romania to Serbia in 1711, when slavery for Roma in Romania was abolished, contributed to that. During that period, many Roma families and groups moved to Šumadija, Moravian regions, Kosovo, and especially Banat, Bačka, and Srem.

A period important for the history of the Roma community in Serbia is the era of the Balkan Wars and the First World War. The participation of Roma and its victims in the Balkan Wars and the First World War has not been sufficiently researched. A significant part of the Roma history, not only in Serbia but throughout Europe, is the period during the Second World War and the Roma Holocaust. In the period from 1941-1945. on the territory of Yugoslavia were organized 71 concentration camps, 329 pre-trial prisons, and the citizens of the former Yugoslavia were detainees of another 69 camps in Europe. Apart from the mass shootings, Roma were detainees in almost all camps in Serbia, and most of them were in the Sajmište concentration camp in Belgrade.

The life of Roma in Serbia in the post-war period is characterized by insufficient efforts to solve the problems of the Roma community. The first Roma societies were founded in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but the Founding Assembly of the Roma Association in 1969 in Belgrade is considered an act of significant socio-political organization of Roma. At that time, the representatives of the Roma people presented a formulated program and political demands. For a long time, Roma activists have pointed out that non-recognition of the status of a national minority is the biggest obstacle to Roma’s social and political participation. Until 2002, the Roma were constitutionally and officially registered as an “ethnic group” or as “others”. The status of a national minority for members of the Roma community in the Republic of Serbia was recognized in 2002, with the adoption of the Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities, based on which they exercise the right to protection of national, cultural and linguistic identity. Representatives of Roma from Serbia have significantly contributed to the international movement and the struggle for the emancipation of Roma.

Short Bio:

Dr. Slavica Denić graduated from the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad. She obtained her Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies of Management in Education at the University of Novi Sad, where she also gained her Ph.D. in the field of Gender Studies.

She is the author of several scientific papers on the topic of social inclusion of Roma men and women, with a particular focus on the education of the Roma population.

She gained her work experience in Radio Television of Vojvodina, the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and the Provincial Secretariat for Economy, Employment, and Gender Equality of the AP Vojvodina. She joined the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit in 2018. She is in charge of providing support to capacity building of national and local institutions to ensure the development and implementation of a strategic framework for the social inclusion of the Roma.

Lecture video is coming soon

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88480855512