Annual Meeting of the Gypsy Lore Society in Sofia and Romani Studies Conference

The gathering, which brought together dozens of scholars in the field, began on the afternoon of September 24 with the annual meeting of the Gypsy Lore Society’s executive board at the Ethnographic Museum in Sofia. The program continued on September 25 with the official opening of the conference by GLS President Tatiana Zachar Podolinská. In her opening speech, she focused on ethical challenges in Roma studies, emphasizing that research in this field raises many ethical dilemmas. These challenges put scholars of all generations in difficult positions as they seek to balance rigorous academic research and data collection while ensuring no harm is done to individuals, communities, or institutions. Zachar Podolinská also highlighted key aspects affecting research, such as the decolonization of research, discussions on “gypsyism” as well as “antigypsyism” as specific forms of racism, and the sensitive issue of the monetization and commodification of research data. During the opening ceremony, the president presented the Marian Madison Gypsy Lore Society Award to young scholar Tamás Hajnáczky from Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary. The conference then commenced with a plenary lecture by Juan F. Gamella from the University of Granada, titled Kris Beyond Borders: Autonomy, Agency, and Self-reliance in a Roma Diaspora. 

The conference’s diverse program included a special panel supported by the APVV Reliroma project, titled Religiosity, Spirituality, and Non-religiosity among the Roma, organized by Tatiana Zachar Podolinská and Magdalena Slavkova from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The panel featured contributions from Tatiana Zachar Podolinská, who presented Unveiling the Unexplored Faces of Religiosity, Spirituality, and Non-religiosity among the Roma in Slovakia; Tomáš Hrustič, who discussed Religion as a Driving Factor of Increased Political Participation of Roma in Slovakia; Juraj Majo, who shared insights on Family and Faith in the Romani Community in Slovakia. A Few Remarks from the 2021 Census; and Magdalena Slavkova, who presented on Social Inclusion and Belonging to the Global Community of God’s Chosen People of Evangelical Roma in Bulgaria and Slovakia, a topic she developed during her 2023 residency at the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology.

Other sections of the conference included contributions from Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov on the Dom community in Azerbaijan (Field Notes); Petr Nuska on Romani Chords: Harmonic Heritage and Sounding Identities among the Roma in Slovakia, which also included a documentary film screening. Daniel Škobla presented a contribution titled “Racialized” Class or Classless Race? The Construction of Roma in Socialist and Post-socialist Czecho-Slovak Cinema, and Andrej Belák presented Social Mechanisms and Drivers Behind the Poor Health of Marginalized Roma: Insights and Implications from a Longitudinal Series of Studies in Slovakia. The conference, thematically and regionally diverse, inspiring, and full of challenges, concluded on Saturday with a joint excursion to the town of Kyustendil.

The Book of Abstracts from the conference is available for download in electronic version HERE.

Text compiled by: Juraj Majo

Photo 1: GLS President Tatiana Zachar Podolinská during the opening speech (Plamena Slavova)

Photo 2: Speech by GLS Vice President Dr. Lilyana Kovacheva (Plamena Slavova)

Photo 3: GLS President Tatiana Zachar Podolinská presenting the Marian Madison Gypsy Lore Society Award to young scholar Tamás Hajnáczky from Hungary (Plamena Slavova)

Photo 4: Organizers of the panel Religiosity, Spirituality, and Non-religiosity among the Roma, T. Z. Podolinská and M. Slavkova (Juraj Majo)

Photo 5: Daniel Škobla during his presentation (T. Zachar Podolinská)

Photo 6: Tomáš Hrustič during his presentation (T. Zachar Podolinská)

Photo 7: Juraj Majo during his presentation (T. Zachar Podolinská)

Photo 8: Petr Nuska during his presentation (Plamena Slavova)

Photo 9: Participants from the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences at the GLS conference. From left: Daniel Škobla, Tomáš Hrustič, below Andrej Belák, Juraj Majo, Tatiana Zachar Podolinská, Petr Nuska, Elena Marushiakova, Veselin Popov (Plamena Slavova)

Photo 10: Romani band performance at the welcome reception joined by our colleague Petr Nuska (Plamena Slavova)