“The text as a whole, in summary, is extremely stimulating and interesting. The use of scholarly literatures outside the somewhat narrow field of Romani Studies makes the book suitable also for those interested in many other subaltern groups, and in the more general themes of action research.” • Social Movement Studies
“This edited volume brings together authors, whose different perspectives on engaging with Romani Studies through activism, academic study and policy development, bring new insights and provocations. The book has been published at a very important juncture in the evolution of Romani Studies and the reflections of the authors are very timely and important…good work is being done to renew Romani Studies and ensure that the discipline thrives in a more critical and engaged environment.” • Ethnic and Racial Studies
“Overall, Roma Activism does what the best academic work should do: it engages the reader from start to finish while challenging the binaries too often accepted as the status quo. The cohesion among the authors of this volume builds a strong case for the future of Romani Studies and Romani activism.” • Critical Romani Studies
“The book offers meaningful insights and opens newmethodological and epistemological pathways, especially with regard to the key issue of the agency of Roma communities, to be understood not as passive subjects at the mercy of external institutions and non-governmental organizations, but as independent actors able to act on the political scene.” • Anuac. Journal of the Italian Society of Cultural Anthropology
“This volume offers a wide array of perspectives for those wishing to better understand critical debates within Romani studies and Roma/pro-Roma activism. It will in particular be a welcome contribution for those already invested in these spheres and wishing for in-depth analyses of shifts and trends in knowledge production and mobilisation.” • Social Anthropology/anthropologie sociale
Exploring contemporary debates and developments in Roma-related research and forms of activism, this volume argues for taking up reflexivity as practice in these fields, and advocates a necessary renewal of research sites, methods, and epistemologies. The contributors gathered here – whose professional trajectories often lie at the confluence between activism, academia, and policy or development interventions – are exceptionally well placed to reflect on mainstream practices in all these fields, and, from their particular positions, envision a reimagining of these practices.
Sam Beck is the former director of the New York City Urban Semester Program, and the current director of the Practicing Medicine Program at the College of Human Ecology of Cornell University. He has carried out fieldwork in Iran, Yugoslavia, Romania, Austria, Germany and the United States. With Carl Maida, he edited Toward Engaged Anthropology (2013) and Public Anthropology in a Borderless World (2015).
Ana Ivasiuc is an anthropologist affiliated with the Centre for Conflict Studies at the Philipps University in Marburg, Germany. Through her past activity as a research coordinator within a Romani NGO in Romania, she has conducted research at the confluence between Romani activism and academia. She is the winner of the 2017 Herder–Council for European Studies Fellowship.
LC: DX145 .R587 2018
BL: 8318.053750
BISAC: SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; SOC026000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Sociology/General; POL000000 POLITICAL SCIENCE/General
BIC: JH Sociology & anthropology