The project "Romani studies at Universities in Europe: Development and Innovations" (2019-2021) aims to stimulate, develop and conduct education in Romani studies at international level and to significantly promote the internationalisation of this work at main European universities teaching Romani Studies. The goal is to increase the visibility of Romani studies in higher education, in the society and internationally; as well as to consolidate activities in Romani studies at higher education institutions by means of collaboration and increasing efficiency by seeking synergies among actors. The project is based on exchange of methods, knowledges and good practices among the academic staff in the field of Romani studies during their training events. The project will produce key educational materials in teaching Romani language as well as in all key areas of Romani Studies and create a common multidisciplinary course focused on Romani studies, which will be tested during the project. Two books of texts in the field will be produced (a textbook and a thematic collection based on project training events). Another intellectual outputs will be two Massive Open On-line Courses (MOOC) focused on Romani and Romani Studies. All these intellectual outputs and mainly MOOCs will constitute innovative and sustainable tools of the project, with a very wide reach-out. Staff and student exchange will contribute to the internationalization of Romani Studies at partner universities and provide the students with access to the Europe's best expertise in Romani Studies. The outputs will be disseminated at two Multiplier Events in Prague and Stockholm and throughout the project runtime e.g. in university teaching. The project will create sustainable and innovative forms of cooperation between main European academic institutions teaching Romani Studies. This project will be carried out by a consortium comprising Södertörn University (Stockholm), Charles University (Prague), University of Helsinki (Finland) and Central European University (Budapest).
The project "Romani studies at Universities in Europe: Development and Innovations" (2019-2021) was focused on the development of a rather new academic field of Romani studies, i.e. research and education on the language, history, culture and sociopolitical contexts of Roma, Europe's largest minority. The project thus involved four main European universities with different traditions in teaching Romani studies — Södertörn University in Sweden, Charles University in Czech Republic, Helsinki University in Finland, and Central European University in Hungary. The project aimed to stimulate, develop and conduct education in Romani studies at international level and to significantly promote the internationalization of this work at main European universities teaching Romani Studies. The goal of the project was to increase the visibility of Romani studies in higher education, in the society and internationally; as well as to consolidate activities in Romani studies at higher education institutions by means of collaboration and increasing efficiency by seeking synergies among actors. An important part of the project were staff training events and student mobility which were thought to bring about an exchange of methods, knowledges and good practices among the academic staff and students in the field of Romani studies, as well as contribute to the internationalization of Romani Studies at partner universities and provide the students with access to the Europe's best expertise in Romani studies. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic situation, this part of the project was completed only partially. During the project the participants produced educational materials in teaching the Romani language: videos by native speakers supplemented by teaching materials were developed for North Central Romani and Vlax (Lovara) Romani by Charles University and a series of videos in Kelderash Romani following the same model was prepared by the team at Södertörn University. The innovative approach of tandem teaching (native speaker + instructor) was developed and implemented for 8 semesters of teaching at Charles University. The project participants also developed a general multidisciplinary course focused on different approaches on Romani studies. It was taught for two semesters at Charles University in collaboration with the experts from the partner universities. A textbook on various topics of Romani studies was prepared during the project and is now submitted to reviewing and to be published by Södertörn University. All materials produced during the project are accessible on the project's website (https://sh.se/romstuduni). These include teaching materials in North Central, Vlax (Lovara) and Kelderash Romani, a curriculum of the course of Romani studies supplemented by the lectures, presentations and texts. All outputs were also disseminated at the two Multiplier Events in Prague and Stockholm and throughout the project runtime, e.g. in university teaching. In general, the project created sustainable and innovative forms of cooperation between main European academic institutions teaching Romani studies.