BOSTON, MA – September 23, 2024 The François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and the Canadian Romani Alliance published a groundbreaking study measuring both major and everyday discrimination experienced by Romani individuals in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton area (GTHA) in Canada. This study examined previously uncounted experiences of everyday discrimination – daily experiences of ethno-racial insults, jokes, stereotype-based questioning, passive or active distancing, and incidents…
German police accompany a racial scientist interviewing a Romani woman (Germany, late 1930s). Bundesarchiv, R 165 Bild-244-71, via Wikimedia Commons. 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…
The François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University today released a new study that draws attention to the inequities the Roma diaspora faces in the United States. Published in collaboration with the advocacy nonprofit Voice of Roma, the study, titled Romani Realities in the United States: Breaking the Silence, Challenging the Stereotypes, includes insight from 363 questionnaires with Romani Americans, touching on socioeconomic conditions, stigma, discrimination,…
Dr. Margareta Matache, director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights’ Roma Program, makes the case for justice, reparations and anti-racist policies following 500 years of enslavement and economic exploitation of the Romani people. Read her full op-ed in Al Jazeera.
On October 8, 2020, leading scholars and activists will discuss the additional challenges and risks Romani people are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic during a webinar, “Responses to COVID-19 at Local, National, and International Levels.” The event will be held from 9 to 10:30 a.m. EDT (3 to 4:30 p.m. CEST). The event will be streamed live on the Facebook page of the Central European University Romani Studies Program. Speakers…
On September 14, 2020, leading scholars and activists will discuss the additional challenges and risks Romani people are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic during a webinar, “Structural Inequalities as Risk Factors During Pandemic.” The event will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EDT (4 to 5:30 p.m. CEST). The event will be streamed live on the Facebook page of the Central European University Romani Studies Program. Speakers This event…
On September 2, 2020, leading scholars and activists will discuss the additional challenges and risks Romani people are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic during a webinar, “Anti-Romani Racism During COVID-19 Pandemic.” The event will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EDT (4 to 5:30 p.m. CEST). The event will be streamed live on the FXB Center’s Facebook page. Speakers …
On August 5, 2020, leading scholars and activists will discuss the additional challenges and risks Romani people are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic during a webinar, “Resurgence of Scapegoating Romani People in Times of Pandemics.” The event will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EDT (4 to 5:30 p.m. CEST). To register, click here. Speakers The webinar will be streamed…
This year marks the eighth anniversary of the Roma Program at Harvard University. Conceived and built by the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard, the Program has become a leading focal point for Roma scholarship, convening and advocacy in North America and beyond. A key aspect of this, by tradition, is the Roma Program’s annual international conference to mark April 8, International Roma Day. This…
Because of the coronavirus, we had to reschedule our planned event for International Roma Day, Intersectional Discrimination: the Roma Case. It would have been the eighth annual International Roma Day event at Harvard. But we cannot let the day pass without marking it. To honor the day the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University will host a Facebook “Watch Party” at 10 AM…
For the past seven years, the Harvard FXB Center for Health & Human Rights has marked International Roma Day. In a guest blog, writer and activist Grattan Puxon (pictured above) explains the history of this important day. An excerpt of the blog is below. To read the full blog post, click here. An Account of the First World Roma Congress Held in London in 1971 By Grattan Puxon | Harvard…
For centuries, racist or casteist ideologies have overlapped in the oppression of African Americans, Dalits, Romani people, and others. The racecraft of inferiority continues to be a powerful ideological weapon that ruling elites and dominant majorities have been using—intentionally and unintentionally, overtly or covertly—against historically oppressed groups. Join us for a panel discussion featuring: Cornel West – Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University Suraj Yengde –…
Note: This post has been updated to includes photos from Neglected Voices: The Global Roma Diaspora April 8th marks International Roma Day, a day we celebrate Romani people across the world. Romani people, who have origins in North India, have made distinct and important contributions to Europe and the Americas in many fields, including literature, arts, crafts, music, science, and sports. International Roma Day is also a time to increase awareness…
On April 5 (9AM-6:30PM) and April 6 (9AM-1PM), 2019, the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and the Romani Studies Program of the Central European University will host Neglected Voices: The Global Roma Diaspora, the seventh Annual Roma Conference at Harvard to mark International Roma Day. The conference will convene scholars and activists to explore the global span of the Romani diaspora and the disparate manifestations of inclusion…
On April 5 (9AM-6:30PM) and April 6 (9AM-1PM), 2019, the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and the Romani Studies Program of the Central European University will host Neglected Voices: The Global Roma Diaspora, the seventh Annual Roma Conference at Harvard to mark International Roma Day. The conference will convene scholars and activists to explore the global span of the Romani diaspora and the disparate manifestations of inclusion…
One in One Hundred: Drivers of Success and Resilience among College-Educated Romani Adolescents in Serbia New report on factors for success among Romani college students challenges the narrative of Roma indifference to education For immediate release: December 20, 2018 One of the major factors in whether Roma adolescents continue on to university is if they have significant support from a non-Roma teacher or peer in combatting everyday racism in school,…
Berlin Memorial to the Roma and Sinti Murdered by Nazism /Photo by Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0 By Marian Mandache August 2 marks the Day of Remembrance for Victims of the Roma Holocaust. Between 500,000 and 1.5 million Roma were exterminated during the Holocaust by the Nazi regimes and their allies. The memory of the Romani victims and survivors is yet to be fully recognize and preserved in history books,…
Thanks to a grant from the Cummings Foundation, the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University (Harvard FXB) is launching a new research project focused on the situation of Romani people in the United States. Since 2012, Harvard FXB has implemented an innovative research and capacity-strengthening program related to the Roma, who have long been an ill-treated minority, facing persecution and, in the past, even slavery.…
By Susan Lloyd McGarry This spring semester Harvard FXB has sponsored or convened three events that brought students and Roma scholars together and suggested some possible future directions in the struggle for Roma rights and in Harvard FXB’s Roma research.. Alone Together: Strength and Solidarity Between the Roma and African American Communities—Harvard FXB’s Sixth Annual International Roma Day Event On April 4, a few days before International Roma Day on…
A personal and political story by Victoria Eugenia Ríos-Terheun My mother, originally from the Bay Area and an American, and my father, a Flamenco guitarist and Gitano (Spanish Romani), moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from Morón de la Frontera, Spain to the San Francisco Bay Area shortly before I was born in 1979. They came with my older brother and sister in pursuit of opportunities for my dad’s…
The Summer 2017 issue of the Harvard Educational Review (HER) includes “Reclaiming Adolescence: A Roma Youth Perspective,” a paper about the FXB Roma Program research in Serbia in partnership with the Center for Interactive Pedagogy. Jacqueline Bhabha, Arlan Fuller, Margarete Matache, Jelena Vranjesevic, Miriam Chernoff, Boris Spasic, and Jelena Ivanis coauthored it. Most of the abstract and a few sentences from the opening paragraph appear below: In this article, the…
Guest Post by John Anusavice April 9 and 10 marked Harvard FXB’s fifth annual Roma conference, “Culture Beyond Borders: The Roma Contribution.” This year the event opened in the evening with a one-woman play, “I Declare at My Own Risk,” written and acted by Alina Şerban, an alumna of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and a Roma artist who grew up in Romania. Her performance delved into the struggles…
By Margareta Matache, Jacqueline Bhabha, and Andrzej Mirga On March 14, in Fogarasi and Others v. Romania, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) condemned Romanian police officers for their inhuman treatment of a Romani family. According to this highly respected international human rights court, the EU member state’s conduct, as enacted by its law enforcement agents, constituted a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention, which provides that…
The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights will host the Fifth Annual Roma Conference, Culture Beyond Borders: The Roma Contribution, at Harvard University to mark International Roma Day. The event will bring together academic, literary, artistic, and student communities to explore the contributions of the Roma community to global culture, arts, and material production. The Harvard FXB Center has organized an event on International Roma Day for the past four years. Previous…
By Rebecca Hope This guest post was originally published on the YLabs blog. Rebecca Hope discusses the importance of youth participatory approaches, which can place young people at the center of program design. She highlights the Harvard’s FXB Center and CIP Center’s 2012-2014 Reclaiming Adolescence project in Serbia, which aimed to address anti-Roma racism by strengthening Romani youth leadership in research and policy making. The program involved youth at every stage –…
By Margareta Matache This is the second of a three-part blog series, “The White Norm in Gypsy and Romani Studies,” about the racialization and othering of Romani people against a white norm in standard Gypsy and Romani studies. The first segment explored the contribution of Gypsy studies to the perception of the Roma as inferior to their white European counterparts. This second segment shows how the legacy of such thinking…
By Margareta Matache This is the first of a three-part blog series about the racialization and othering of Roma people against a white norm in standard Gypsy and Romani studies. This first segment explores the contribution of Gypsy studies to the perception of the Roma as inferior to his or her white, European counterpart. The second blog shows how the legacy of such thinking manifests itself in modern Romani scholarship.…
By Abbey Interrante August 12, 2015. When István was a young child, he aspired to become a dance instructor, just like his father. Another boy, András wanted to become a car mechanic. However, as young boys, István and András were held back from achieving these dreams by their school in Hungary—simply for being Roma. When they were seven years old, István and András were tested for a mental disability by…
by Margareta Matache and Arlan Fuller “The Roma movement has not been yet ready to…use protest, as a strategic pressure tactic.” May 27, 2015. School segregation stands as a stark expression of historic and current injustice against the Roma in Europe. In spite of legal and policy measures that now exist, the practice has neither stopped nor significantly diminished, as emphasized by Harvard FXB and DARE-Net in the Strategies and…
