Periodic Reporting for period 3 - RomaInterbellum (Roma Civic Emancipation Between The Two World Wars)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2019-09-01 al 2021-02-28
Over the past two decades the Roma issue has become one of the most current topics in European public space and also became especially relevant in academia. Despite of this there are still not researched topics, such as history of the Roma in the period between WWI and WWII, and the appearance and development of social and political projects proposed by Roma. In this time span Roma started to be politically institutionalized and in the same time also subjected to a variety of controversial policy practices. The present project has the ambitious goal to fill in this gap.
Within both academia and public perception, as well as in the discourse of key political actors and Roma activists, one comes across the ingeminate statement that Roma history has been primarily written by non-Roma and that, because of the absence of a writing tradition, Roma voices have been widely left out of history and that Roma are nothing else but passive recipients of different state governments’ policies. Based on our in-depth historical research conducted throughout Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe so far, the project is able to offer a corrective point to this overarching narrative.
Through relying on documents, critical rereading and rethinking of historical sources and older research, this new approach, a norm in other fields of history, will overcome the legacy of a Roma history that has too often been blighted by stereotypes and myths. Through this, the project contributes to overcome extant stereotypes, present in the society about Roma as nation without history and even within academic circles, where a belief is met that there are not sufficient, preserved and written historical sources concerning Roma past to allow for the emergence of Roma History as a field in its own right.
In our research so far, we were able to discover a large amount of new, largely unknown sources which strongly contradict these claims. In the archives and libraries across the region we have found numerous documents, written not only about Roma, but also by Roma themselves, that shed light not only on wide-ranging Roma vision(s) about the problems of their time and desired future for their communities, and that also reveal their place and role in specific historical events which shaped the world after the Great War.
The project started also creation of a publicly accessible database of sources representing social and political endeavours of Roma. This, together with publications done so far and with volumes in preparation, will be a major contribution to the study of the history of Roma movements and state measures towards them in the Interwar period.
The overarching goal of the project is to incorporate the history of Roma, or Europe's largest minority, into the mainstream of European and global historiography.
Within both academia and public perception, as well as in the discourse of key political actors and Roma activists, one comes across the ingeminate statement that Roma history has been primarily written by non-Roma and that, because of the absence of a writing tradition, Roma voices have been widely left out of history and that Roma are nothing else but passive recipients of different state governments’ policies. Based on our in-depth historical research conducted throughout Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe so far, the project is able to offer a corrective point to this overarching narrative.
Through relying on documents, critical rereading and rethinking of historical sources and older research, this new approach, a norm in other fields of history, will overcome the legacy of a Roma history that has too often been blighted by stereotypes and myths. Through this, the project contributes to overcome extant stereotypes, present in the society about Roma as nation without history and even within academic circles, where a belief is met that there are not sufficient, preserved and written historical sources concerning Roma past to allow for the emergence of Roma History as a field in its own right.
In our research so far, we were able to discover a large amount of new, largely unknown sources which strongly contradict these claims. In the archives and libraries across the region we have found numerous documents, written not only about Roma, but also by Roma themselves, that shed light not only on wide-ranging Roma vision(s) about the problems of their time and desired future for their communities, and that also reveal their place and role in specific historical events which shaped the world after the Great War.
The project started also creation of a publicly accessible database of sources representing social and political endeavours of Roma. This, together with publications done so far and with volumes in preparation, will be a major contribution to the study of the history of Roma movements and state measures towards them in the Interwar period.
The overarching goal of the project is to incorporate the history of Roma, or Europe's largest minority, into the mainstream of European and global historiography.
PI (Prof Elena Marushiakova-Popova) worked on setting up the office and the project, worked on Recruitment of PDRF, identified and selected local consultants and did preliminary planning of the database. In collaboration with the IT technicians they also setup the Project’s web page. Elena manages, coordinates and organizes the project and there are constant mutual exchange meetings with the team for the purpose of brainstorming and sharing of resources. She also coordinates the research activities of the whole team while conducting her own research, including desktop research and research in archives across region.
RF (Prof Veselin Popov) is supporting and assisting the PI in the management, coordination and the organization of the RomaInterbellum Project in all aspects. He assists the PI in the overall management and administration of the project. In collaboration with PI and IT technicians he was active in the initial setting up of the web page of the project; he also assists the PI coordinating the research of the whole team, and in supporting the career development of PostDoc Research Fellows in the project, while conducting his own research, including desktop research and research in archives .
PDRF (Dr Aleksandar Marinov) was selected through open competition and joined the team on 1st of Sept. 2017. Immediately after joining the team, he took part in all joint activities. Dr Aleksandar Marinov has also his own individual responsibilities in the project – own research topic with focus on Bulgaria, he is responsible for matters with University’s Library and assists and collaborates with the IT technicians.
From 1st of Sept 2018 two more PDRF, namely Sofiya Zahova and Raluca Bianca Roman joined the team, selected through open competition. Sofiya Zahova is conducting research in countries of former Yugoslavia, and already conducted her first archival research trip in Serbia. Raluca Bianca Roman’s research is focused on Romania and Finland. She already conducted her first research trips in archives in UK and in Romania.
Whole team collaborates on a daily basis with PI Elena Marushiakova and RF Veselin Popov exchanging ideas, brainstorming and sharing resources. All members of the team participate actively in the regular working sessions and working meetings, including on-line meetings and discussions, several times a month.
With respect of own research – all members of the team are carrying out desktop and library research; work on classification and analysis of resources, and are involved in gathering, processing, classifying and analyzing sources to be included in the database created by IT specialists of the project. All members of the team are developing own publications and papers for conferences.
The project team till now conducted 35 field trips for archival and library research, made 6 invited presentations and participated in 13 conferences worldwide, organised international workshop and 3 conference panels.
The project team is supported in the work by a network of 21 local researchers/ consultants across Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. They not only consult and support the main team but are also encouraged and supported in conducting their own research work, thus a mutually beneficial cooperation is established.
RF (Prof Veselin Popov) is supporting and assisting the PI in the management, coordination and the organization of the RomaInterbellum Project in all aspects. He assists the PI in the overall management and administration of the project. In collaboration with PI and IT technicians he was active in the initial setting up of the web page of the project; he also assists the PI coordinating the research of the whole team, and in supporting the career development of PostDoc Research Fellows in the project, while conducting his own research, including desktop research and research in archives .
PDRF (Dr Aleksandar Marinov) was selected through open competition and joined the team on 1st of Sept. 2017. Immediately after joining the team, he took part in all joint activities. Dr Aleksandar Marinov has also his own individual responsibilities in the project – own research topic with focus on Bulgaria, he is responsible for matters with University’s Library and assists and collaborates with the IT technicians.
From 1st of Sept 2018 two more PDRF, namely Sofiya Zahova and Raluca Bianca Roman joined the team, selected through open competition. Sofiya Zahova is conducting research in countries of former Yugoslavia, and already conducted her first archival research trip in Serbia. Raluca Bianca Roman’s research is focused on Romania and Finland. She already conducted her first research trips in archives in UK and in Romania.
Whole team collaborates on a daily basis with PI Elena Marushiakova and RF Veselin Popov exchanging ideas, brainstorming and sharing resources. All members of the team participate actively in the regular working sessions and working meetings, including on-line meetings and discussions, several times a month.
With respect of own research – all members of the team are carrying out desktop and library research; work on classification and analysis of resources, and are involved in gathering, processing, classifying and analyzing sources to be included in the database created by IT specialists of the project. All members of the team are developing own publications and papers for conferences.
The project team till now conducted 35 field trips for archival and library research, made 6 invited presentations and participated in 13 conferences worldwide, organised international workshop and 3 conference panels.
The project team is supported in the work by a network of 21 local researchers/ consultants across Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. They not only consult and support the main team but are also encouraged and supported in conducting their own research work, thus a mutually beneficial cooperation is established.
From the beginning of the project up to now we were able to prove that the initial assumption about availability of “Roma voices” in libraries and archives was correct. Contrary to the widespread belief that such evidence doesn’t exist, the project succeeded to discover written heritage about active participation of Roma in social life during the Interwar period. PI with her team were able to discover in libraries and archives thousands of pages of documents which prove that Roma were not only passive recipients of policy measures but also active architects of their lives. Along with this, the documents discovered, show the contradictory policies of individual countries towards Gypsies (as they were called at that time) in which the discriminative and repressive measures were often combined with indifference and/or paternalistic approach for integration and efforts for welfare, health and educational improvement and even “affirmative action” in early Soviet Union.
In frames of project the first monograph Roma voives in history was published in open access, second one is forthcoming and the third is in preparation.
Till the end of the project we expect to discover even more unique documents. Till the end of the project also a data base of discovered sources will be accessible on line.
In frames of project the first monograph Roma voives in history was published in open access, second one is forthcoming and the third is in preparation.
Till the end of the project we expect to discover even more unique documents. Till the end of the project also a data base of discovered sources will be accessible on line.