Criminalization-Surveillance-Resistance: Roma & Policing from the Holocaust to Present (Welcome)

Criminalization-Surveillance-Resistance: Roma & Policing from the Holocaust to the Present
This virtual workshop explores the history of race and policing through the experiences of European Roma from the late 19th century through the Holocaust and into the present.

This virtual workshop explores the history of race and policing through the experiences of European Roma from the late 19th century through the Holocaust and into the present. Scholars from the US, Europe, and beyond will address the confluence of the criminalization and racialization of the category of “Gypsy,” the role of the police in the persecution and genocide of Roma in the Holocaust, and the legacies of this history for Romani communities to the present day. The program will open with a roundtable of scholars and activists who will address the contemporary stakes of the history of the criminalization and police persecution of Roma in Europe and explore resonances with parallel histories of race and policing in the American context.

Presented by: The Center for Austrian Studies, The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and the Institute for Global Studies

Please register for each session individually.

Friday, September 16th | 12:00PM - 1:45PM CDT

Welcome remarks - Criminalization-Surveillance-Resistance: A Roundtable Discussion on Roma, Race, and Policing

Moderator
Christopher Robertson, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota

Speakers
Petra Gelbart, Curator for Music, RomArchive
Nadja Greku, Central European University
Cristiana Grigore, Founding Director, Roma People’s Project, Columbia University
Sunnie Rucker-Chang, Associate Professor, Slavic & East European Languages and Cultures, The Ohio State University

Register here.

Thursday, September 22 | 11:00AM - 12:30PM CDT

Session I: Constructing the Gypsy Threat: Roma at the Nexus of Race and Criminalization

Moderator
Hilde Hoffmann, Researcher, Institute for Media Studies, Ruhr University Bochum

Speakers
Ilsen About, Assistant Professor, CNRS, IRIS, EHESS, Paris

• The International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) and the “Gypsy Question” in Europe, 1924-1940: Theories, practices and consequences

Habiba Hadziavdic, Adjunct Faculty in Modern and Classical Languages, University of St. Thomas

• Persisting Tropes in the Filmic Representations of European Roma

Chelsi West Ohueri, Assistant Professor, Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, University of Texas, Austin

• Constructing the Gabel: examining surveillance and criminalization in the production of racialized Romani Identities in Albania

Respondent
Jennifer Illuzzi, Associate Professor of History, Providence College

Register here.

Friday, September 23 | 11:00AM - 12:30PM CDT & 1:30PM - 3:00PM CDT

Session II: The Role of the Police in the Persecution of Roma during the Holocaust | 11:00AM - 12:30PM CDT

Moderator
Justyna Matkowska, Postdoctoral Fellow, Adam Mickiewicz University and Lecturer, University at Albany

Speakers
Pavel Baloun, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences

• Czechoslovak “Wandering Gypsies”: A Legislative Term and Its Practice in the Interwar Period

Benjamin Thorne, Associate Professor of History, Wingate University

• "Everyone Knows They Are All Criminals”: Institutional Bias and Police Brutality Against Roma during the Romanian Holocaust

Jan Láníček, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities & Languages, University of New South Wales

• Ordinary Gendarmes? Czech Police Forces and the Holocaust in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

Respondent
Sheer Ganor, Assistant Professor of History, University of Minnesota

Register here.

Session III: Legacies of Genocide: Romani Communities in the Aftermath of the Holocaust | 1:30PM - 3:00PM CDT

Moderator
Angéla Kóczé, Assistant Professor and Chair, Romani Studies Program, Central European University

Speakers
Margareta Matache, Director, Roma Program, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University

• Practices of Denial and Distortion of the Samudaripen/Porrajmos in Southeastern Europe

Ioanida Costache, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania

• Race, Genocide, and Romani Life: Legacies of Persecution

Ana Ivasiuc, Lecturer in the Anthropology of Crime and Security, Department of Anthropology, Maynooth University

• The Racial Policing of the Roma in Contemporary Italy

Anabel Carballo Mesa, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Barcelona

• Romane Zorako: Historic Roma and Sinti Resilience

Respondent
Ari Joskowicz, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and European Studies, Vanderbilt University

Register here.