Call for Applications Romani Responses to Persecution: Transnational Histories of Repression and Resistance (1850–1950)

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum invites applications for the 2026 Moskowitz/Rafalowicz International Research Workshop Romani Responses to Persecution: Transnational Histories of Repression and Resistance (1850–1950). The Mandel Center will co-convene this workshop with Adrian-Nicolae Furtună, Romanian Academy and National Centre of Roma Culture, and Verena Meier, Research Center on Antigypsyism at the University of Heidelberg.

Scheduled for July 13–24, 2026, at the USHMM in Washington, D.C. 

Application deadline: January 12, 2026 

This workshop investigates the longue durée of the persecution of Romani people from 1850 to 1950, a century anchored by the emancipation of Roma from enslavement in the Romanian principalities and culminating in the genocidal violence of the Holocaust. This period, marked by the upheavals of World War I and the collapse of empires, saw the rise of racial science and eugenics, the consolidation of modern state apparatuses of surveillance and control, intensified border regulation, and the emergence of international policing networks—developments that fundamentally transformed the trajectory of anti-Roma persecution. […] We invite submissions that analyze these developments and their transnational dimensions with attention to both the mechanisms of repression and the varied Romani responses they provoked. 

We welcome applications from across regions and time periods that explore transnational dynamics through border and migration studies, comparative analyses, or the circulation of ideas and practices. We especially encourage interdisciplinary perspectives, intersectional analyses of gender and class, studies that consider the role of memory, and approaches that bring methodological innovation to the study of persecution and resistance. Scholars from underrepresented backgrounds in the field of Holocaust studies or whose work draws on Romany-language sources are particularly encouraged to apply. 

What we offer:

• Fully funded participation: economy-class airfare and hotel accommodation are covered by the Mandel Center
• Access to unparalleled archival collections held by the USHMM — documents, photographs, testimonies, many yet unstudied.
• Intellectual exchange with international scholars, joint reflection
• Potentially a special journal issue based on the workshop papers 

Required application materials:

• A short biography
• A curriculum vitae
• A list of any related publications and/or on-going research projects
• An abstract of no more than 500 words outlining the specific project that the applicant is prepared to present during the program. 

We warmly encourage all interested scholars to seize this unique opportunity to advance research on the transnational history of Roma repression and resistance.

For questions: researchworkshops@ushmm.org

Application form