Team

Dr. Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka is a Polish-Roma anthropologist, scholar, and activist known for her work on Roma rights, ethnic mobilization, and cultural representation. She earned her Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in 2016 and also holds master’s degrees in European Integration (UAB, Spain) and Comparative Studies of Civilizations (Jagiellonian University, Poland).

Mirga-Kruszelnicka has conducted extensive research with Roma communities across Europe and Latin America, focusing on ethnopolitics, identity construction, the Roma Holocaust and Roma resistance, remembrance culture, antigypsyism, and the participation of Roma youth and women in social movements. As one of the leading voices in Critical Romani Studies, she has authored and edited numerous scholarly publications and co-edited books, including “Education for Remembrance of the Roma Genocide: Scholarship, Commemoration and the Role of Youth” (2015) and “Re-thinking Roma Resistance throughout History” (2020). In 2022, she published “Mobilizing Romani Ethnicity: Romani Political Activism in Argentina, Colombia, and Spain”.

Alongside her academic work, she has been deeply involved in Roma civil society. With over two decades of professional experience and sustained engagement with Roma issues, she brings extensive expertise at the intersection of civil society, academic research, cultural diplomacy, and advocacy.

She has served as Deputy Director of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) since January 2018. Since January 2026, she serves as Executive Director of ERIAC. 

Emese Molnár is a sociologist by training with a professional interest and formation on the crossroads of intersecting fields from the more theoretical such as gender and equal opportunities studies, towards the more performative like art and activism. Between the years 2016-2018 she has been a fellow of the Hungarian-Argentinean exchange program of the Argentine Ministry of Education, doing a Master’s degree in Curatorial Studies in Visual Arts at the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a production assistant she participated in the organization, production and montage of the exhibition “Take Me, I´m Yours” curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Christian Boltanski in the framework of BIENALSUR, the International Biennial of Contemporary Art of South America organized by UNTREF in 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Part of her freelance curating endeavors includes a virtual photography exposition held at the KORUNK Gallery in Cluj Napoca, Romania in February 2021 (NY City Visions – Pre-COVID Places and Non-Places). She has been curator in residence at the Museumsquartier Vienna in April 2019, with the support of Tranzit Austria and Erste Stiftung, and beforehand she has contributed to the collective exhibition “100 Years of Parallel Dialouge”, reflecting on the transformative changes of the past decades that affected the different ethnic groups living together in the CEE region (Art Museum of Cluj, Romania in august 2018).

Emese comes from the field of social inclusion and empowerment, having worked 4 years at the Open Society Foundations in Budapest, Hungary. Within the Roma Initiatives program her greatest contribution was the organization of professional meetings and conferences around the theme of anti-gypsyism that paved the way to the founding of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC).

She participated in several socio-cultural development projects implemented by ITD / CEPS Projectes Sociales in Barcelona, Spain working on issues of migration, social participation, European capitals of culture and storytelling. In 2011 she was part of the organizing committee of the International Theatre Festival “Interferences” held at the Hungarian Theater in Cluj, Romania.

She joined ERIAC in August 2021 as Project Coordinator for the Roma Pavilion at the 59th Venice Art Biennale to be held between April and November 2022 and is also involved in RomaMOMA, which is a contemporary art project initiating a forum for collaborative reflection on a future Roma Museum of Contemporary Art.

Emese is based in Berlin, Germany.

Neven started his professional engagement in 2011 in the Finance sector in Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank, while in 2015 shifting to the administration and finances of the non-governmental sector on Roma inclusion issues. During his Erasmus+ experience gained at the Roma Decade Secretariat Foundation back in 2015, he professionally engaged in Roma topics. Originally from Varazdin, Croatia, Neven has been actively engaged for many years on various projects dealing with the economic aspect of social inclusion and youth participation at the local and regional levels. Neven has a BA in Management and an MA in Political Economy from the Berlin School of Economics and Law, where he specialized in socio-economic and macroeconomic policies. He graduated with the topic: Impact of austerity measures on Roma Inclusion in Western Balkans – Serbia and North Macedonia. During his studies, Neven was also professionally involved in smaller business entities in Varazdin. Besides his formal education, Neven has also participated in various seminars and educational trainings on the topic of monetary and economic policies, marketing, and collective bargaining.

Neven is based in Berlin, Germany.

Manuela Demir-Kariman serves as Head of Pride and Community Outreach at the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), where she leads Pillar I, designing strategy and programming that strengthens Roma pride, identity, and community engagement across Europe.

Born and raised in Šuto Orizari, North Macedonia, Manuela brings over 15 years of experience in Roma civil society, community organizing, and research across the Western Balkans and Central-Eastern Europe. Her career spans grassroots mobilization, grant-making, and institutional research. Manuela’s path began in North Macedonia’s civic space, where she organized nonpartisan civic campaigns as part of Romano Avazi (Roma Voice) Initiative that brought Roma citizens into public life. She went on to serve as Program Officer for the Roma Initatives Office’ Democracy Portfolio, managing a regional grants-making strategy across Southeast Europe, and later continued her engagement as Research Manager in Roma for Democracy Foundation, designing the Foundation’s data architecture and building the systems through which the network learns, adapts, and measures impact.

She holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from Central European University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, alongside a Data Analyst certification from DataScientest and Université La Sorbonne. She is also a certified graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School’s program on leadership, organizing, and narrative-driven change. Her long-standing engagement centers around the conviction of Roma being the subject of change and her work reflects a sustained, decade-long efforts towards that. She brings a community-rooted, evidence-driven approach to building cultural pride as a foundation for civic and political agency.

Manuela is based in Berlin, Germany.

Radu Sticlea is an art director and curator with a background in Arts & Multimedia. Before joining ERIAC, he focused on contemporary culture from Central and Eastern Europe, collaborating with emerging artists and experimental practices from the region, and building partnerships with institutions such as Creative Europe Desk, the International Visegrad Fund, the Romanian Cultural Institute, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Lithuanian Culture Institute, the Polish Film Institute, the Estonian Contemporary Art Centre, and the Camões Institute. Since January 2023, he has been the Communications Officer at the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), and since 2024 he has been developing and coordinating ERIAC’s film initiatives.

Radu is based in Berlin, Germany.

Petro Rusanienko received his M.A. (with honors) from Kiev National University Theater’s Faculty of Cinema and Television of Karpenko-Kary with a specialty in TV and cinema acting. Throughout his acting career, Petro has appeared in roughly 100 cinematic and theatrical works, including performances at the most popular theatres in Kiev.

Due to Petro’s interest in the Roma community, he has organized the Roma Youth Forum, Ukraine’s largest cultural event for the Roma, and was awarded the Roma Pride Award for his contribution to Roma culture in Ukraine. Petro has dedicated his motivation and drive to studying at CEU, where he integrated Gender Studies into his profession and use his talent to create projects at the international level.

Petro is based in Berlin, Germany.

Tetiana Malysheva is a psychology graduate with a strong interest in mental health, trauma, and social inclusion. She is a Ukrainian Roma actively involved in youth and Roma rights initiatives across Europe.

Tetiana focuses on inclusion, equality, and representation of underrepresented communities, with a particular interest in trauma-informed perspectives, intergenerational experiences, and how historical and social contexts shape psychological wellbeing.

Alongside her academic background, she has been engaged in international youth and advocacy spaces, including educational initiatives connected to the Council of Europe and Roma-focused projects. Tetiana is especially interested in moving from theory to practice — applying psychological knowledge to real-world community work and social change.

She is passionate about understanding how people cope with adversity, build resilience, and create belonging, and about using psychology as a tool for empowerment and justice.
Tetiana is based in Berlin, Germany.  

Since 2011, Claudiu embarked on his journey in the NGO sector as a volunteer, progressing to roles as a youth worker, assistant manager, and project manager. Engaging in over 50 projects funded by the European Union, he transitioned into the role of facilitator / trainer, a position he continues to hold to this day. Claudiu earned his bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Babes-Bolyai University. During his experience at Nevo Parudimos Association, he played a central role in instigating positive change within various communities and effectively coordinated diverse EU-funded projects. Within the same organization, he led the volunteer department, contributing to increase its capacity of the organization to work and accommodate volunteers, while enhancing the NGO’s reputation through impactful initiatives. Through years of experience in the NGO sector, Claudiu has improved his soft skills, enabling him to adapt to any situation and consistently deliver good results in both his work and activities.

Claudiu is based in Berlin, Germany.

Having a background in art history and cultural industries, Gabor has been active in the field of culture since 2011. He used to be a project assistant of the artist collective Space Detournement, a research assistant of Budapest100, organizer-curator of Budapest Architecture Film Festival, organizer-coordinator at the sociocultural center Budde-Haus (Leipzig) and a mobility coordinator at Nautas (Leipzig-Berlin). Besides his professional career, Gabor puts an emphasis on voluntary work, having supported various NGOs throughout the years, such as KEK – Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Center, Trafo – House of Contemporary Arts, DOKLeipzig, OFFBiennale, and Human Platform, among others.

Gabor is based in Berlin, Germany.