Roma
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Roma Connect is a European Project, composed of four organisations from four different European countries:
Spain, Greece, Hungary, and Rumania.
The general objective of the Project is to empower and support grassroots Roma women by creating a European network, where they have a common and safe space to support and learn from eachother, and to launch a antigypsysim campaign. The end goal is to have an institutional impact, both on the national and the European level. By engaging with public institutions, a space Roma women do not have equal access to, we want the women to be able to influence and shape the policies and combat existing antigypsyism discrimination.
To create trust between Roma and non-Roma communities to combat racism sexism and antigypsyism. The Project has created an anti-gypsyism Campaign and the consoritum partners are holding intercultural workshops with the non-Roma communities.
To create a European Network for the Roma women in all four countries, where they can elaboarate ideas for the antigypsyism campaign. Many of the women have never had an opportunity to connect crossborders with other Roma women. We want them to have a long lasting network that they can use well after the end of the Project, to support and encourage eachother, and develop solutions for problems they experience in their everyday lives.
To foster right awareness through capacity building activities, in form of trainings. The Project will deliver four trainings, three on the European level (Antigypsyism, Public narratives and Social impact, Euroepan laws) and one on national level, specific for the context in each country (National laws).
On the national level, each organisation has created a National Coordination Committee (NCC), which are being contacted frequently to assure the right implementation of the activities. This group is composed by grassroot Roma women, and technicians, academics, and researchers who have many years of experience in working with the Roma community, and the Roma women specifically.
On the European level, we have created an Assessor Panel, composed of 5 women, with all extensive experience and knowledge in subjects covered by the Roma Connect project. They are meeting before each big milestone to ensure that the activities are being delivered with highest quality possible.
Ms. Maria Alegria Gabarri Moreno, lives in Amposta, Terres de l’Ebre, in Spain and dedicates her time for many different purposes. She is a Community Mediator in the Town Council of Amposta, is part of the Board of the Roma Association Drom Kotar Mestipen, president of a religious entity, and has been volunteering at the Red Cross since 10 years. Furthermore, she has participated in the School Council of the school Soriano Montagut. This year, 2023, she has passed the university entrance exam.
Dr. Rosamaría Cisneros (Associate Professor) is a Roma Scholar, Sociologist, Flamenco Historian and Peace Activist who graduated from UW-Madison and went on to complete her Master’s in Dance History and Criticism and a Master’s iini Curriculum and Instruction from UNM-Albuquerque (USA). Her PhD is in Sociology with a focus on Roma women, intersectionality, dialogic feminism and communicative methodologies from University of Barcelona (Cataluna, Spain). At the moment she is an artist-researcher at Coventry University’s Centre for Dance Research based in the UK. She is also an independent artist, dancer, curator and teacher who has organised various festivals and exhibitions.
Cisneros brings conceptual grounding in debates around decolonising edcuation, archives and practice research and through her consultancy work for the International Council on Archives, leading their ethical archives project, and chair of the Equality and Diversity Task Force for Europeana Foundation, Cisneros is well-placed to discuss EDI-related tensions that link to education and policy change. She is also located in a network of practitioners and researchers working in ‘inclusive’ and ‘marginalised’ research practices and supports services such as the NHS, Save the Children, and the EU-Commission (and many more) to explore the potential of including grassroots community voices in research and policy reform. Cisneros was also the lead for the Catalan government’s Integrated Plan for Roma People’s Roma women’s focus in 2016-2018. Her political knowledge allows her to consult on gender issues for several European and UK organisations.
Emilia Aiello-Cabrera is Ramon & Cajal reserach fellow (2023) at the Department of Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Between 2019-2022 she was EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government (Ash Center) & Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Sociology Department).
Dr. Aiello-Cabrera obtained her BA in Political Sciences, a Master’s degree in Labour and Social Policy, and a PhD in Sociology (2016), all of them developed at the UAB. She is also research affiliate of the Group of Ethnic Studies and Migration (GEDIME) at the UAB, and member of the CREA research network, the Community of Researchers on Excellence for All (CREA). She has been visiting researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School (2014), and at the Department of Sociology at the Oxford University (2016).
Emilia’s research interests are focused on how the most vulnerable social groups organize at the grassroots level in order to overcome inequalities. Besides, her scientific and personal concern also focuses on uncovering the ways to maximize the social impact of all types of scientific research -better connecting scientific interests and outputs to societal needs.
She collaborates in different initiatives such as Ciencia en el Parlamento (Science in the Parliament, in which is member of the board), and the Drom Kotar Mestipen Roma Association of Women. She is also Associate Editor of the International Journal of Roma Studies, a journal edited by Hipatia Press; Co-Editor of Papers. Revista de Sociologia, edited by the UAB Department of Sociology; and member of the Editorial Board of Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, in the Sociology section.
Her works have been published in journals such as International Sociology, Plos One, Evidence & Policy, Qualitative Inquiry, International Journal of Qualitative Methods; RIMCIS, among others.
Professor and Researcher of Communication Studies at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. Line of research: Media and Positive Social Change.
Activist/Speaker for Roma women rights and inclusive education. Parliamentary appointee to the Romanian National Anti-discrimination Council.