[Bilimsel Haber] EU Funded Training Program in Romany Studies

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

  /CEU// Summer University///

/Nádor u. 9., Budapest, Hungary 1051/

/Tel.: (36 1) 327 3069, 327 3811/

/Fax: (36-1) 328-3698 or (36-1) 327-3124/

/E-mail: summeru at ceu.hu <mailto:summeru at ceu.hu> /

/Website: http://www.sun.ceu.hu /

/Skype name: ceu-sun /

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/Anthropology, History, Linguistics, Sociology/


  /Multi-Disciplinary and Cross-National Approaches to Romany Studies -
  a Model for Europe/


  /July 2 - 20, 2007/

* *

*Course directors:* *Michael Stewart*, Department of Anthropology,
University College London
*Julia Szalai*, Institute of Sociology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences /
Nationalism Studies, CEU

*Faculty: Paloma Gay y Blasco*, University of St. Andrews, Social
Anthropology, UK
*Judit Durst*, University College London
*Livia Jaroka*, European Parliament, Belgium
*Yaron Matras*, University of Manchester, Languages, Linguistics and
Cultures, UK
*Judith Okely*, Oxford University, IGS Queen Elizabeth House, UK
*Alexey Pamporov*, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sociology of Religions
and Everyday Life, Bulgaria
*Alenka Spreizer*, University of Primorska, Social Anthropology, Slovenia
*Elisabeth Tauber*, Institute of Ethnology and African Studies,
University of Munich, Germany
Historian - TBA


    Research training objectives:

The training we offer will take place in a series of events over
two-three years from May 2007 to summer 2009. When you sign up to this
programme therefore you are minimally committing yourself to training
between April 207 and April 2008 – a partially self and partially staff
selected cohort will proceed to training in teaching methods and then
the organization of their own summer school in 2009. Please consult the
end of this document for a full time-line of events.

The series of events over the training period includes
electronic/distance seminars, visits to supervisors and, above all else,
three summer schools the first of which takes place in Budapest July 2007.

The program offered here thus differs in structure and goals from the
other CEU Summer schools this year and also previous ‘editions’ of this
(‘Plight of the Roma’) school. The fundamental goal is to turn those of
you who apply this year and who are willing and able to pursue this goal
into the trainers of the future. The summer school in 2009 will thus be
taught, in significant part, by the most ambitious and talented of the
successful candidates this year.

Our aim throughout is to bring together young (mostly doctoral)
researchers working on issues that concern Roma and Gypsies so that you
will be able to /gauge the development of Romany politics and culture
over the past century from the perspective of Romany Studies and from
that of the social scientific study of the countries of the region/.
*Interaction with leading senior researchers is the core of all training
activities. *The experts will draw directly on their current research
and extensive international collaborations to offer you the opportunity
to hone your own skills.


    Context

Today, after sixteen years of democratic politics and, to a greater or
lesser extent, reformed bureaucratic structures the plight of Romany
populations in the former communist countries shows little signs of
alleviation. The fundamental aim of this training is to enable you
better to understand the conditions of this stalemate situation. For
some of you it will help you better to act to create conditions that
will in the future break the current deadlock.

The multi-disciplinary field of Romany studies forms the overarching
structure for the series of events we offer. The training is designed to
encourage you to engage with a broader intellectual field than that you
may have encountered so far within your own doctoral programme within a
particular discipline. We believe it is impossible to teach coherently
about Romany problems in any one country outside of a broader
comparative and transnational perspective and so we will select teachers
and trainers from a wide pool.

We aim to influence both the way you carry out your research in future
and the ways in which you communicate and, especially teach your
findings. We recognise that there is a /growing demand for training and
teaching in Romany studies across Europe and, consequently, for
materials for such courses/. ‘Romology’ is increasingly widely taughtin
schools and especially in the training institutes of teachers, the
police, social workers and other agencies of the state. One aim of the
training will be to provide all the participants with the intellectual
tools to take a critical look both at current practice and, through an
examination of academic research, to consider what might replace current
often rather poor or even bad practice.

We will encourage you to incorporate the new perspectives provided by
our training into your own research findings as well as into your own
teaching materials. In particular a ‘cut’ of the trainees (6 from the
original 25) from 2007 will in turn become the trainers of the next
generation of ‘Romology’ teachers for the summer school in 2009.

In the course of your training you will confront a wide range of
training models and taught modules in the residential sessions.
Approaches from *five main fields* will be brought together: /history,
linguistics, anthropology (including ethnographic film), public policy
and sociology (including demography)/. Senior staff will provide
training in their own field during the residential courses.

An important part of the training will be multi- and interdisciplinary
seminars in which participants doing PhDs in different disciplines will
be confronted with the diverse perspectives of their senior trainers and
will be encouraged to think across these divisions. Cultivating the
ground of interdisciplinary collaborations is a time-consuming process
involving mutual tolerance and patience.

The electronic classrooms/seminars will also incorporate senior trainers
from different academic fields. The partner institutions (and trainers)
have been selected for their complementarity and diverse theoretical and
empirical research backgrounds.

The acculturation offered by the project in multidisciplinary work will
enhance your /research flexibility/ by offering you training in research
methods that can be used to conduct inter- and multi-disciplinary
cross-national research.

Our ‘series of events’ is not just aimed at academic doctorands. We
recognize that there is an urgent /need to develop more coherent policy
approaches to the treatment of the largest minority in Europe./ (See
below on Eligibility).


    Content

Issues of language (rights), economic exclusion (and specialization),
the historical legacy of persecution, the role of gendered images of the
social order in the maintenance both of radical social exclusion and of
the Romany social order as well as an examination of film as a means of
presenting Romany lives (both for research and ‘entertainment’ purposes)
will, amongst other topics, form core themes of our workshops.

The summer school July, 2007 has the following specific goals:

    * to assess the contribution that linguistics has made to
      determining Romany history and further to tracing migration routes
      to and within Europe
    * to understand current trends in the codification of Romany and
      Romany literacy
    * to place the experience of different European Roma peoples in
      comparative perspective notably with other marginalized
      populations of Europe and North America.
    * to recognize, use and learn to criticize current anthropological
      and sociological approaches to marginality, racialisation of
      poverty, residential and educational segregation, underclass
      formation and deindustrialising societies
    * to work simultaneously with a focus on social structure as
      determining Romany forms and an understanding that the history of
      human populations always shapes the way people respond
      ‘culturally’ to the hand fate has dealth them
    * to investigate and teach about how Gypsies/Roma conceptualise and
      manage the sexed human body and the practices and understandings
      to do with gender and sex that help Gypsies/Roma maintain their
      distinctiveness from the dominant non-Gypsies
    * working with historians, to assess the determinants of the present
      position of Roma and Gypsies in the social division of labour and
      the implications for Romany studies of these facts. One special
      section of this summer school will be devoted to placing the Roma
      holocaust in context.
    * to work towards a better understanding of the origins of the
      modern Romany civil rights movement in the post-war period, and
      how to research and conceptualise the internationalisation of
      Romany politics in the period that followed the ending of
      communist rule in Eastern Europe. In particular, to think through
      the implications of the shift in Roma policy context - from
      defining ‘Roma policy’ in terms of solving the ‘Gypsy problem’, to
      conceiving ‘Roma policy’ as an issue of human or ‘Roma Rights’.
    * to think through questions about the form the politics of a
      non-territorial ethnicity may take
    * A /common module/ will train participants /to appreciate how
      Romology is currently taught in Europe and how it can be improved
      /with methods from the latest, international social sciences and
      humanities research. Participants will learn to place the
      conception of knowledge in a field which was newly invented as a
      pseudo-scientific field and which was and is still marginalised.
      The marginalisation of this field has made possible the
      re-invention and persistence of archaic theorisations and the
      vigorous reproduction of the implicit and explicit chauvinist and
      racist discourses on e.g. Romany “race”. Participants will be
      trained to recognise how the consequences of the pseudo-scientific
      discourses of Romologists are reflected in the legal and
      governance system, which often regulates the minority policy. They
      will learn to approach critically the relation between 'knowledge'
      and government policies in different states; and the pros and cons
      of the dominant paradigms in Gypsy studies and other social and
      socio-historical work on traveling groups.
    * Following on from this critique, the trainees will receive expert
      guidance in the complex process of /linking academic research and
      policy/. Using experts from the EU (one Romany MEP), the NGO
      sector and legal specialists, participants will be encouraged /to
      frame policy oriented research and turn academic findings into
      policy papers/. Invited legal specialists will also provide
      preliminary training for subgroups of the participants in issues
      of ethnic conflict and their negotiation.

During the second week of the summer school participants will be offered
a choice of specialized seminars/tutorials run simultaneously in order
to enable in-depth investigation of topics they wish to specialize in.

A unique feature of the summer school (and the two that come in 2008 and
2009) will be a two-three day long field trip and assessment-exercise to
two Romany communities in Hungary/Romania. This will provide you not
only with a ‘hands-on’ experience in ‘rapid survey work’ but alsothe
opportunity to reflect on the use of such methods in teaching.

We will also, finally, prepare the ‘ethnographic film’ training that
will take place in Cluj, 2008 with intensive film viewing and
interpretation. In some of this work we will collaborate with the Media
Globalization and Post-Communist European Identities Summer School.

The */first electronic seminar/* in April 2007 will allow you to begin
to appreciate the breadth of doctoral research in Romany Studies today
and to reflect on the state of your own research. *It will also enable
you to participate in the structuring of the first residential course,
*i.e. Budapest, July 2007*. *

The */second electronic seminar/ in early Spring 2008 *will offer
/training in research methods/ through the discussion and critique of
your ongoing data collection. This is in effect a ‘fieldwork’ or ‘data
collection’ seminar. Professor Matras, for instance, might provide
further specialised guidance on collection of linguistic materials; a
historian might provide further training in archival investigations
etc.. The exact configuration of topics covered will depend on trainee
demand.

In the */second year the residential course in Cluj/ July 2008 *will
provide /three parallel trainings in research methodologies/: the
interpretation and use of /linguistic and socio-linguistic data/ (using
the interactive website at Manchester as a model); the use of
/ethnographic film/ in research and teaching about Roma (using the
extensive work done by our senior trainers, Csilla Kato, Dumitru Budrala
and Bogdan Neagota as well as other highly qualified local academics);
/qualitative and quantitative methods in examining poverty and the
informal economy/ in Europe today (using the expertise of several of our
trainers). Once a day an interdisciplinary seminar will bring the
participants together.

The further training program will also include two more *distance
learning seminars as well as an ongoing electronic classroom* that will
provide resources and a site for the exchange of ideas and materials
during the whole training program. The electronic seminars will, in
order: identify and explore the main themes of the training through
debating the trainees’ research projects; build methodological
preparedness for data collection and provide intensive mentoring on
course preparation for the final summer school. The format will normally
involve five 70-minute online seminars preceded by discussion board
format debate about circulated texts.

The/ *last residential summer school in Budapest, July 2009*, /will
invite a new intake of early researchers for training conducted partly
by those of you who wish to experiment in running a summer school and
whom we deem ready and prepared to do so. As with the first summer
school (2007), the focus will be on offering a multidisciplinary
training as well as specialization seminars in the second week with
fieldwork incorporated in the curriculum.

/Mentoring/supervision/ is a fundamental feature of the training
throughout.

Through helping to structure /individually tailored training programs
for the participants/, the supervisors will contribute to the practical,
theoretical and substantive /foundation for the writing of your final
doctorate /in your home institution. The trainers, all of whom are
experienced researchers, will be personally involved in mentoring, the
junior trainees highlighting, when appropriate, career opportunities
and, generally introducing them to as many new contacts as possible. The
participants’ reports/papers for the electronic seminars will provide a
useful means for you to reflect on your progress and direction and
acquire that fundamental tool of the qualified researcher, the ability
to reflect critically and objectively on your own work.


    Eligibility

a) Minimum requirement is a /first degree/ allowing the student to
pursue doctoral studies.

b) The main target group is /junior and postdoctoral/ /researchers
/interested in developing Romany Studies primarily involved in academic
MA or Ph.D. education. Other persons who are engaged in research in a
/non-academic environment/ (think tanks, government departments, NGOs
and the like) are also eligible. Given the political and policy
importance of the topics we deal with we expect a significant minority
of our trainees to be researchers in NGOs, government or other
non-university public institutions. We expect the majority, however, to
be academically engaged researchers.

c) Eligibility categories:

· *Early-stage researchers* with up to *four years’* experience of their
research career (engagement in a relevant academic program or
professional activity) Applicants in this category will in general have
precedence.

· *Experienced researchers with up to ten years’* experience of their
research career (engagement in a relevant academic program or
professional activity)

· *Experienced researchers with more than ten years’* experience of
their research career (engagement in a relevant academic program or
professional activity), who have a ‘European Union’ citizenship, but do
not live in Europe at the time of the events


    Funding

An EU grant has been awarded to finance participation costs, but final
contract negotiations are still underway. Applications are invited on a
full scholarship basis; final confirmation of funding will be available
January 1 2007 at the latest.

*
*


    Tentative Programme for the 2007 Summer School

*/ /*

	

*/Faculty/**//*

	

*/Topic/**//*

	

*/Purpose/rationale /**//*

	

*/Training Format /**//*

*/YEAR 1/**//*

	

	

	

	

*/Event 1/*

07-11-May-07

electronic classroom

1 week*//*

	

Blasco, Matras, Spreizer, Stewart, +TBA

	

State of the art in Romany research; planning of summer school with trainees

	

- introduction of participants and outline of research work

- circulation of best application essays and discussing them

- negotiating the syllabus and methodology of the upcoming summer school

	

moderated electronic discussion

*/Event 2/*

02-20-Jul-07

Budapest

3 weeks*//*

	

Blasco, Durst, Jaroka, Matras, Okely, Pamparov, Spreizer, Stewart,
Szalai, Tauber, +TBA

	

Forging multi-disciplinary Romany Studies

	

creating a multi-disciplinary environment in which doctoral and other
Participants can reshape their approach to Romany studies; parallel,
facultative seminars offered for specialisation

	

summer school seminars and a fieldtrip

*/YEAR 2/**//*

	

	

	

	

*/Event 3/*

04-08-Feb-08

electronic classroom

1 week*//*

	

Blasco, Matras, Stewart+TBA

	

Research analysis, archival methods, building Romany databases in
linguistics

	

deepen and broaden methodological expertise of trainees

	

moderated electronic discussion

*/Event 4/*

07-11-Jul-08

Cluj

1 week*//*

	

Budrala, Kato, Konczei, Magyari-Vincze, Matras, Neagota, Pasqualino,
Stewart, +TBA

	

Thematic specialisation seminars with three streams (sociology,
linguistics and performance of speech, music, dance and film)

	

provide a deeper knowledge and understanding of trainees’ research topics

	

summer school seminars

*/Event 5/*

*First semester-08* (exact date by arrangement)

1 week*//*

	

Matras, Neagota, Okely, Pamporov, Pasqualino, Spreizer, Szalai, Stewart,
Tauber

	

Trainer training: mentoring meetings, library research and public lectures

	

- *15 of the 2007 trainees will be selected to become trainers of the
final summer school in 2009.*

- Trainees give a public lecture to undergraduates, which provides one
basis for final training towards becoming trainers in summer 2009

	

site visits to senior trainers by trainees: small group training in
parallel groups and on various locations

*/YEAR 3/**//*

	

	

	

	

*/Event 6/*

09-13-Feb-09

Electronic classroom

1 week*//*

	

Blasco, Kato, Matras, Okely, Stewart, Szalai

	

Discussion and finalisation of the syllabus and teaching materials for
the final summer school

	

Training and preparation of 8 trainees to run own summer school

	

moderated electronic discussion

*/Event 7/*

06-24-Jul-09

Budapest

3 weeks*//*

	

Kato, Matras, Stewart, Szalai, + 6 newly trained junior researchers + TBA

	

Training a new intake of doctoral Event participants

	

To train the trainees in teaching by allowing them to run a summer
school and fieldwork training for the next generation under the guidance
of the senior staff; parallel facultative seminars offered for
specialisation

	

seminar and fieldwork


    /Non-discrimination policy statement/

/Central European University does not discriminate on the basis
of--including, but not limited to--race, color, national and ethnic
origin, religion, gender or sexual orientation in administering its
educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan
programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs./