This conference aims to facilitate critical discussions about initiatives that promote or support opportunities for persons belonging to racialized and oppressed groups to access higher education. The conference seeks to promote the participation of Romani scholars andprofessionals, including those who took part in such programs earlier, and facilitate a knowledge exchange amongst various scholars and professionals from the educational and social sciences.

The conference will be held on May16-17, 2024, in a hybrid format, in Vienna (Austria) and online.

Argument

The Romani Studies Program at Central European University, in cooperation with the Yehuda Elkana Center for Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education Research at CEU, the Roma Programat the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, and the Critical RomaniStudies Department at Södertörn University, is pleased to invite scholars to submit abstract proposals for the Challenging the Reproduction of Inequality Through Higher Education: Critical Approaches in Romani Studies and Beyond conference.

The event celebrates the 20th anniversary of CEU’s Roma Graduate Preparation Program (RGPP, formerly Roma AccessProgram). Neoliberal education systems reproduce and reinforce privileges and inequalities. They frame structural socio-economic inequities as differences in capabilities, achievement, and merit. Complex social reproductive and disciplinary systems mirror and (re)produce the biopolitics ofracialized social relations along with the structural and epistemic inequalities of the larger socialorder. In most European countries, Roma students receive segregated and/or low-qualityeducation, which either prevents them from pursuing further studies or leads them to limited orlow-prestige and low-quality study options and career choices, which perpetuates Roma exclusion from social, economic, and political participation. Moreover, the complex, historicallysituated, and intersected manifestations of epistemic and structural injustice hindering accessto quality education spanning primary to higher education have inhibited participation inknowledge production, thwarting Roma individuals from becoming epistemic agents/knowers and contributing to social knowledge.Education could and should play a crucial role in dismantling structural inequality, marginalization, discrimination, and prejudice, and in enabling Romani individuals to fulfill theirpotential and participate equally in all areas of society. The Roma Graduate Preparation Program (RGPP) started in 2004, as the Roma Access Program (RAP). Its name and structurehave changed over the 20 years, but the main aims of the program have not. RGPP providesRoma graduate students with intensive and high-quality academic and language skillsdevelopment so that they can apply to masters’ programs at CEU or other universities and theycan compete openly and fairly with other applicants. More than 80% of RGPP graduates havebeen accepted to masters’ programs and more than 5% to PhD programs. Besides academia andresearch, many RGPP graduates work for supranational organizations, national governments,international Roma organizations, and NGOs or have founded an NGO themselves, while somehave become MPs in their respective countries.

This conference aims to facilitate critical discussions about initiatives that promote or support opportunities for persons belonging to racialized and oppressed groups to access higher education. The conference seeks to promote the participation of Romani scholars andprofessionals, including those who took part in such programs earlier, and facilitate a knowledge exchange amongst various scholars and professionals from the educational and social sciences.

We are especially keen to receive papers on the following topics:

• The structural and epistemic conditions of Roma and/or other marginalized groups inhigher education and their implications
• The interpretations, implications, and politics of ‘access to education’
• The justifications of educational access programs for marginalized groups
• The potentials and limitations of programs promoting the educational access of personsbelonging to oppressed groups
• The strengths and weaknesses of targeted Roma educational policies and initiatives inthe context of challenging mainstream neoliberal education systems
• The analysis of educational reforms and initiatives contributing to Romani emancipationand educational measures and institutions undermining such efforts
• Higher education teaching strategies and curricula that challenge the exclusion of Romafrom knowledge production and/or promote the equality and inclusion of Roma andother marginalized groups in the classroom

Proposals are welcome from researchers at all stages of their careers. Scholars of Romani origin,including alumni of access and preparation programs - are particularly encouraged to apply.

Submission guidelines

Please submit proposals including the author’s name, title, a 500-word abstract, and a 100-wordbiography at https://forms.office.com/e/aY8neVdr9T

Deadline for submission of paper proposals: February 29, 2024.

The academic program committee will review all proposals. Successful applicants will be notified by March 15, 2024.

Program committee

• Angéla Kóczé, Assistant Professor, Romani Studies and Academic Director, Roma Graduate Preparation Program, Central European University
• Marton Rovid, Visiting Professor, Central European University
• Jan Selling, Associate Professor, Romani Studies Department, Södertörn University
• Margareta Matache, Director, Roma Program, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University