Romani Women’s Movement and Knowledge Production

Roundtable discussion: Knowledge Production, Representation and the Role of Academia

1:00 – 1:10 Opening Remarks: Liviu Matei (CEU Provost and Pro-Rector)

1:10 – 2:30 p.m. Roundtable discussion

Participants: 

• Eva Fodor (Associate Professor of CEU Gender Studies and Pro-Rector for the Social Sciences and Humanities);
• Alexandra Oprea (lawyer, author and activist from Columbia University, US); 
• Prem Kumar Rajaram (Associate Professor of CEU Sociology and Social Anthropology); 
• Iulius Rostas (Chair of CEU Romani Studies); 
• Michael Stewart (Recurrent Visiting Professor, CEU Nationalism Studies Program).

Moderator: Marton Rovid, CEU post-doctoral fellow

The roundtable aims to discuss the role of scientific and expert knowledge production in the oppression and/or empowerment of under-represented groups in academia and to explore various forms of relationships between the researcher and the researched.

• What is the relation between scientific knowledge production and the struggle for emancipation and (self)representation of oppressed social groups?
•  What is the relevance of the identity of the researcher in social sciences?
• How could academic knowledge production contribute to or inhibit the representation of racialized, sexualized and socially excluded groups?
• Under what conditions can participatory action research empower marginalized communities? To what extent is this approach embraced and supported by CEU?
• To what extent do meritocratic universities contribute to epistemic and structural violence? How could universities address these issues?

2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Coffee Break (Nador utca 15/lower foyer)

Book Launch: The Romani Women’s Movement: Struggles and Debates in Central and Eastern Europe

3:00 – 3:20 p.m. Introductory remarks by editors

• Angela Kocze (Assistant Professor of CEU Romani Studies and Academic Director of Roma Graduate Preparation Program)
• Viola Zentai (Co-Director and Research Fellow at CEU Center for Policy Studies)
• Jelena Jovanovic (Policy and research coordinator, ERGO Network, Brussels, Belgium)
• Eniko Vincze (Professor at Faculty of European Studies, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania)

3:20 – 3:50 p.m. Reflections on the book

• Elissa Helms (Associate Professor, CEU Department of Gender Studies)
• Wanda Balzano (Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Wake Forest University, US)

3:50 – 5:10 p.m. Roundtable discussion with authors

Participants:  

• Gwendolyn Albert (independent human rights activist);
• Lidia Balogh (Hungarian Academy of Sciences); 
• Jelena Jovanovic (ERGO Network, Brussels, Belgium); 
• Alexandra Oprea (Columbia University, US); 
• Eniko Vincze (Babes Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania).

Moderators: Angela Kocze and Viola Zentai

5:15 p.m. Reception (Nador utca 15/lower foyer)