Name
Mrs Carol Silverman
Country of residence
United States
Ethnicity
Russian Jewish
Occupation
professor
BIO
I have been involved with Balkan Romani music and culture for 40 years as a researcher, teacher, activist, and performer. Focusing on Bulgaria and Macedonia as well as on Balkan Romani immigrants to North America and western Europe, I have investigated the relationship among politics, ethnicity, ritual, music, and gender. I also explore the phenomenon of “Gypsy” music in relation to issues of appropriation, representation, and the negotiation of identities in the world music market. My book Romani Routes: Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in Diaspora was released in 2012 (paperback, 2014) with Oxford University Press with an extensive accompanying website. It won the Alan Merriam Book Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology. My research has been supported by Guggenheim, IREX, NEH, ACLS, and NCSEER. I am also a professional performer and teacher of Balkan music, and have worked with the NGO Voice of Roma for over twenty years producing educational festivals with Roma and doing many forms of advocacy. Recent articles include: Oregon Roma (Gypsies): A Hidden History. Oregon Historical Quarterly 118(4, 2017): 518-553. Promises and Prospects for the Romani Women’s Movement, in The Romani Women’s Movement: Struggles and Debates in Central and Eastern Europe, eds. A. Kóczé, V. Zentai, J. Jovanović, and E. Vincze. Routledge, in press. Gypsy/Klezmer Dialectics: Jewish and Romani Traces and Erasures in Contemporary European World Music. Ethnomusicology Forum 24(2, 2015).