Roma Activism Reimagining Power and Knowledge
ROMANI STUDIES
Edited by Sam Beck, Cornell University
In the course of the twenty-first century, Europe has become aware that the Roma are its largest minority, with an estimated population of eleven million people. As a result, Romani Studies has emerged as an interdisciplinary field that offers perspectives derived from the humanities and social sciences in the context of state and transnational institutions. One of its aims is to remove the stigma surrounding Roma scholarship, to engage with the controversies regarding Roma identity and, in this way, counter anti-Roma racism.
Volume 1
ROMA ACTIVISM: REIMAGINING POWER AND KNOWLEDGE
Edited by Sam Beck and Ana Ivasiuc
ROMA ACTIVISM
Reimagining Power and Knowledge
Edited by Sam Beck and Ana Ivasiuc
First published in 2018 by
Berghahn Books
© 2018, 2020 Sam Beck and Ana Ivasiuc
First paperback edition published in 2020
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Beck, Sam, editor of compilation. | Ivasiuc, Ana, editor of compilation.
Title: Roma Activism: Reimagining Power and Knowledge / edited by Sam Beck and Ana Ivasiuc.
Description: First edition. | New York: Berghahn Books, 2018 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018015940 (print) | LCCN 2018027671 (ebook) | ISBN 9781785339493 (eBook) | ISBN 9781785339486 (hardback: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Romanies—Politics and government. | Romanies—Social conditions.
Classification: LCC DX145 (ebook) | LCC DX145 .R587 2018 (print) | DDC 305.8914/97—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018015940
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78533-948-6 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78920-847-4 paperback
ISBN 978-1-78533-949-3 ebook
We dedicate this volume to Nicolae Gheorghe, the work he accomplished, and all the people he inspired to shape a positive Roma identity and to carry on advancing their emancipation.
FIGURE 0.1. Nicolae Gheorghe interviewing a Romungro in 1979. Photo by Sam Beck.
CONTENTS
Sam Beck
Introduction. Renewing Research and Romani Activism
Ana Ivasiuc
PART I. RENEWING METHODS, RENEWING SITES
Huub van Baar
Ana Chirițoiu
László Fosztó
PART II. RENEWING EPISTEMOLOGIES
Chapter 4. Paradigm Shift and Romani Studies: Research “on” or “for” and “with” the Roma
Andrew Ryder
Chapter 5. Transgressing Borders: Challenging Racist and Sexist Epistemology
Angéla Kóczé
Chapter 6. Alter-Narratives: Seeing Ordinary Agency
Ana Ivasiuc
Chapter 7. Policy Input on the Front Line: Dilemmas of the Ethical Academic
Margaret Greenfields
Danielle V. Schoon
Chapter 9. “Be Young, Be Roma”: Modern Roma Youth Activism in the Current Panorama of Romani Affairs
Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 0.1. Nicolae Gheorghe interviewing a Romungro in 1979
Figure 3.1. Nicolae Gheorghe during the event organized by the RIRNM in