Antigypsyism and Critical Whiteness - Winter School

16:00 – 17:30

Introduction, Opening Lecture and Discussion
Prof. Dr. Iulia-Karin Patrut
Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF)

Vice President for Research & Knowledge Transfer; Professor of German Studies

Dr. Dezso Mate
Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF)

Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies (ICES); Research Associate

Opening Lecture: Antigypsyism and the Triangulation of White Fascination, Elimination, and Romani Emancipation
Prof. Dr Iulia-Karin Patrut
Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF)

Vice President for Research & Knowledge Transfer; Professor of German Studies

17:30 – 17:45

Break

17:45 – 19:15

Orientalism, Gypsylorism and the Indian Connection.

“Romantic And Colourful” but “Religiously Unreliable” and “Perpetual Beggars”

Prof. Dr. Jan Selling
Södertörn University – Stockholm, Sweden 

Head of the Department of Critical Romani Studies; Professor of Critical Romani Studies; Associate Professor of History

09:30 – 11:00

Understanding Anti-Roma Racism: Theory and Praxis

Dr. Magda Matache (online)
Harvard University

FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Director of Roma Program

11:00 - 11:15

Break

11:15 - 12:45

From Tackling Antigypsyism to Remedying Racial Injustice
Prof. Dr. Márton Rövid
Central European University (CEU) – Vienna, Austria 

Romani Studies Program, Visiting Professor

12:45 – 13:30

Lunch Break

13:30 – 15:00

New Perspectives on the Recognition of Sinti and Roma as Victims of Fascism in the Soviet Occupied Zone and GDR

Verena Meier (online)
Heidelberg University 

Department of History, Research Center on Antigypsyism, Postdoctoral Researcher 

15:15 -16:45

Gypsyloreism and Romani Agency
Dr. Dezso Mate
Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF) 

Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies (ICES), Research Associate

16:45 – 17:00

Reflections, Q&A

09:30 – 11:00

Filling Up the Gaps: Intersectionality in Queer Research and Its Limits

Dr. Ramona Dima
Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden

Gender Studies Department; Associate Senior Lecturer

11:00 – 11:15

Break

11:15 – 12:45

The Long Shadow of Our Ancestry: How White Non-Roma Can Understand Our 

Effective History in Central and Eastern Europe
Dr. Violeta Vajda
Phiren Amenca International Network, Budapest, Hungary 

Executive Director

12:45 – 13:30

Lunch Break

13:30 – 14:30

Closing Remarks and Questions
Prof. Dr. Iulia-Karin Patrut
Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF) 

Vice President for Research & Knowledge Transfer; Professor of German Studies

Dr. Dezso Mate
Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF)

Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies (ICES); Research Associate

Ramona Dima is Lecturer in Gender studies at Södertörn University and holds a PhD from the University of Bucharest. Her publications and topics of interest include queer culture, sexuality and migration, LGBT+ activism. Her latest book, Queer culture in Romania, 1920 – 2018, looks into the interconnected histories of queer art and activism. During her Marie Skłodowska-Curie project, Ramona has investigated queer women´s lives under communism and is now focusing on transnational queer activism in SEE. Since 2014, she has been collaborating with her life and work partner, developing a video and performance-based art practice. She is the initiator and co-organiser of QueerFemSEE, the only queer and feminist international conference with a focus on South-Eastern Europe.

Filling up the gaps: intersectionality in queer research and its limits

Starting from my experience as a queer scholar in Romania and then in the Scandinavian context, this lecture aims to anchor my research on Southeast Europe (SEE) into key moments and contexts. I present a subjective picture of how queer researchers can overcome both institutional and societal reluctance in connection to matters of non-normative sexualities, while, at the same time, navigating ethical dilemmas and different definitions and practices related to intersectionality. During the lecture, I explore the meaning of intersectionality in very different contexts, how is it used by certain types of feminism and queer feminism. What are new understandings of the term, and possible critiques of its use today? What does it actually mean, in a working environment – in an NGO, in a group of friends/activists, in the classroom/academia? I do this using autoetnographical examples and brief accounts on my experiences in artistic, activist, and academic circles.

Verena Meier studied History, English Philology, European Art History, and Philosophy at the Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From August 2018 to October 2024, she was a PhD candidate at the Research Centre on Antigypsyism at the University of Heidelberg. Her PhD-project “Criminal Police and Genocide – The Nazi persecution of Sinti and Roma in Magdeburg and Transitional Justice after 1945 under the Allies and in the GDR” was honored with distinction. Her dissertation was awarded with prize of the Lamer Peace Foundation that honors final thesis from the university of Heidelberg in the fields of „peace, freedom, security“.  Her research interests include police history, the history of ideas, gender studies, and research on historical antisemitism and antigypsyism.

New Perspectives on the Recognition of Sinti and Roma as Victims of Fascism in the Soviet Occupied Zone and GDR

The recognition of victims is one among many other tools that successor states can make use of when overcoming state crimes of the predecessor state. In this period of transition East Germany also underwent a great socio-political reconstruction into a socialist state that soon turned out to be another dictatorship. In this scenario the question arises to what extent Sinti and Roma, who were victims of a racial persecution that culminated in a genocide under the Nazis, were recognized as Victims of Fascis and whether there were similar antigypsyist continuities in the recognition as in West Germany

Margareta Matache, PhD, is a Harvard Lecturer, co-founder, and Director of the Roma Program at Harvard University. She also serves on the Lancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination, and Global Health. Matache is the co-editor of Time for Reparations: A Global Perspective (2021) and Realizing Roma Rights (2017). Her book, The Permanence of Anti-Roma Racism: (Un)uttered Sentences (Routledge), which explores anti-Roma racism and its specific and universal underpinnings, manifestations, and links to other oppressions, will be released in December 2025. With 25+ years of experience in organizational leadership, policy advocacy, social change interventions, and academic work, she focuses on framing and addressing anti-Roma racism.

Understanding Anti-Roma Racism: Theory and Praxis

We will analyze anti-Roma racism, which I frame in Romani as ofitsialo telćhudipen (structural or top-down oppression) through both theoretical and practical perspectives. Our focus will include the origins, protectors, legacies, and continuities of anti-Roma racism, as well as its place within global frameworks and theories related to oppression, racism, racialization, and slavery.

Dezso Mate holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Sociology from Eötvös Loránd University. Currently he is a Research Fellow at Europa–Universitat Flensburg and Visiting Research Fellow at Heidelberg University – Research Centre on Antigypsyism. In 2025 he was elected as deputy chair of the Barvalipe Academy at European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture. Dr Mate also lectures at the Critical Romani Studies Department at Södertörn University. His research interests encompass the science of racism, intersectional antigypsyism, and social resilience.

Gypsyloreism and Romani Agency 

The lecture aims to offer an understanding as how “Gypsy” has been racialized and been influenced by academic and social discussions over the centuries, from the first official registers and scholarly works until today’s censuses and knowledge productions. The argument points out how discussions on “Gypsy” representation have been shaped by external perspectives that determined and limited early Romani voices in history and public memories. To fill this gap of lost voices and representations, with a quite late establishment, Romani and pro- Romani scholars in the early 2000s started to challenge and break down existing power structures, social perceptions, and stereotypes with the school of Antigypsyism, Anti-Romani Racism, and Critical Romani Studies.

As Vice President for Research and Knowledge Transfer she is a member of the Executive Board of the University. Iulia Patrut is Spokes Person of the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Group of the German Research Foundation “Antigypsyism and Ambivalence in Europe 1850 – 1950 with projects at the Europe University Flensburg, University Marburg, University Heidelberg, and University Gießen. Currently she coordinates a project dealing with the Romani Press in Eastern Europe, especially in Romania. Starting from 2005, she has published numerous books and articles analyzing scientific and literary representations of Romanies, with Antigypsyism and Stigmatization and with correlations and differences between Antisemitism, Colonial Racism and Antigypsyism.

Antigypsyism and the Triangulation of White Fascination, Elimination, and Romani Emancipation
The talk analyses the ambivalence of Antigypsyism with regard to the triangulation between (1) a specifically ‘White’ fascination, (2) an also specifically ‘White’ elimination of the stigmatized ones, and (3) the Romani attempts for emancipation. The lecture also responds to the need to address the triangulation of Antigypsyism, Antisemitism, and Colonialism (and, in some cases, the stigmatization of First Nations), as these representations of the Other exhibit structural and functional analogies and cross-references and stabilize mutually – even through their differences –, always generating exclusions.

Márton Rövid is Visiting Professor at the Romani Studies Program at Central European University (CEU). His research focuses on racial justice, antigypsyism, and minority inclusion in Europe. He has published widely on the intersection of social policy and ethnic relations, and his recent work examines the normative foundations of reparations and democratic solidarity in post-socialist contexts. Marton has coordinated international programs promoting Romani access to higher education and regularly contributes to academic and policy debates on equality and human rights

From Tackling Antigypsyism to Remedying Racial Injustice

Debates on racial justice in normative political theory often focus on legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and slavery, while overlooking the persistent injustices faced by Romani communities. This lecture explores the relevance of these debates for Roma in two steps: first, by reviewing arguments on reparations—ranging from remembrance and reconciliation to restitution and guarantees of non-repetition—and their relation to democratic solidarity; second, by assessing contemporary discussions on antigypsyism through the lens of racial justice. We will ask: Who bears responsibility for past and present oppression, and under what conditions can policies address enduring racial injustice?

Jan Selling, Professor of critical Romani studies at Södertörn University. Since 2010, he has researched and taught about Romani history, Romani liberation and antigypsyism. In 2013 he organized the first international antigypsyism conference in the Nordics. Main publications: Svensk antiziganism [Swedish Antigypsyism] (2013), Romani Liberation (2022), reports on Sweden for the projects CHACHIPEN (2022) and JEKHIPE (2025), co-curator of the internet knowledge platform RomArchive 2015-2019, researcher in ERIAC's project Re-Thinking Roma resistance (2020). At Södertörn University, he has been conducting an international online PhD-colloquium on antigypsyism and critical Romani studies since 2020; since 2024 together with Dr. Mate.

Orientalism, Gypsylorism and the Indian connection.

“Romantic and colourful” but “Religiously unreliable” and “prepetual beggars”

My lecture departs from a seminal quote of Romani-American scholar Ken Lee: “Gypsylorism is the construction of the exotic Other within Europe—Romanies are the ‘Orientals within.’”. In my research I have developed this further and identified the “conceptual gypsy” as the axis of antigypsyism and the basis for the racism and discrimination against Romanis and others associated with the stereotype. To support this, I discuss empirical examples from enlightenment thinker Grellmann (1787), to the horrors of Josef Mengele (1944), of Netflix commodification (2010) and my not yet published revealing interview with a superior of the Romanian Orthodox Church (2023).

Violeta Vajda PhD is a Romanian-Hungarian researcher and civil society leader. She is the Executive Director of Phiren Amenca, an international network dedicated to expanding Roma youth participation, strengthening European advocacy, and combating antigypsyism. With more than 25 years of experience in international civil society across Romania, the UK, and Hungary, Violeta has worked to advance inclusion, challenge antigypsyism, and promote participatory leadership in diverse communities. Her work brings together program leadership, research, advocacy, and coalition-building - all centered on empowering Roma youth and fostering solidarity across movements. Violeta’s approach to combating antigypsyism is rooted in the belief that non-Roma identity can be reimagined as a progressive and positive force - one that actively supports and strengthens the emancipatory aims of the Romani movement.

The Long Shadow of Our Ancestry: How White Non-Roma Can Understand Our Effective History in Central and Eastern Europe

In this lecture, drawing on concepts inspired by hermeneutics such as 'thrownness' and 'effective history', I seek to outline a path out of the confines of antigypsyism for white non-Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. I explain how and why history and our own personal histories overshadow and define how we can act in the present. To illustrate how effective history has worked on the ancestors of both Roma and non-Roma in this part of the world, I draw on examples from the Habsburg Empire and from medieval Romania, and explain how these continue to affect our everyday lives.