Roma and Travellers: Mobility, Persecution and Memory Course, Helsinki

The Helsinki Summer School course “Roma and Travellers: Mobility, Persecution and Memory” (5-21 August) is currently taking place in Finland.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, the course offers the opportunity to explore the relationship between Roma and Traveller groups in past and present European societies from the perspectives of minority, migration and memory politics, and the field of Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Interest in this Europe-wide topic has increased along with recent migrations from Eastern Europe and the course examines the politicization and problemization of the everyday realities of Roma and Travellers as well as the silence surrounding their past persecutions, all of which perpetuate the stereotype of Roma and Travellers as the “other”. The course aims to provide participants with an understanding of the connection between present-day problems and long-term discrimination.

The course was organised by the University of Helsinki, Aalto University and the Hanken School of Economics and co-ordinated by Dr Malte Gasche, Dr Miika Tervonen and MA Anca Enache. Dr Gasche is a specialist in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, while Dr Tervonen and Enache are prominent junior scholars of Romani and Migration Studies.