ROMANI ATLANTIC. Transcontinental logics of ethno-racial identities
- Reference: LQ300582201
- Funding entity: Lumina Quaeruntur, Czech Academy of Sciences
- Duration: 2022 – 2026
- ESOMI participants: Magazzini, T.
Despite the centuries-long presence of Roma in America and Africa, scholarship remains methodologically Eurocentric. Romani identities are commonly treated in isolation from global connections that shape how Roma view themselves and are viewed relative to other ethno-racial communities. The project seeks to focus on the Lusophone Atlantic contact zone and to investigate Romani identity within comparative, transnational, and intercultural frameworks. It recasts Roma from “the largest European minority” to a pan-Atlantic diaspora shaped by the processes and relationships that structure the globalised world. In so doing, the project will advance our understanding of the relational nature of identity formation and social classifications. The project aims at documenting the social position of Romanies across the multi-racial, multicultural, and politically stratified realm of the Portuguese-speaking Atlantic. To generate insights into how different racial contexts impact Romani belonging and interethnic interactions, the team is conducting ethnographic and archival research in the South Atlantic and examining Romani social position in relation to other ethno-racial projects. It is led by Dr. Martin Fotta as a principal investigator and includes Dr. Tina Magazzini and Dr. Karolina Válová.