Research New Research Project: Transformation of Antigypsyism in the Modern Age

From the mid-19^th century onward, sociographical ideas about Sinti and Roma flowed into a racially based biological approach to them that helped to prepare the ground for the Nazi genocide. This transformation process is the topic of a research project, which started at the Research Centre on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg University. Besides basic aspects of the practice of state and police persecution, it also aims to examine the interconnections between antigypsyism, antisemitism, and colonial racism. The project is part of the research group “Antigypsyism and Ambivalence in Europe (1850-1950)”, in which scholars from various universities collaborate under the leadership of Europa-Universität Flensburg.

Prof. Dr Tanja Penter, academic director of the Research Centre on Antigypsyism, sees the special approach of the Heidelberg project as being “that, for the first time, the transnational network of discourse and correspondence which produced knowledge about Sinti and Roma is to be presented in its development, which was characterized by manifold interdependencies.” Another question for study in that context is the role played by academia and the importance of racist knowledge production for the Nazi genocide against the Sinti and Roma in Europe. Verena Meier is working on this sub-topic as part of a postdoctoral project entitled “Transformations of Police Antigypsyist Discourse: From the ‘Racial’ Paradigm to Genocidal Practice”. Alongside the main themes of criminology and medicine, and aspects of gender history, the project also intends to shed light on the neglected perspective of the minority itself. “The project will foreground the self-assertiveness and agency of Sinti and Roma, for instance when affected persons spoke out against discriminating external representations and practices – an issue to which historical research on antigypsyism has so far paid too little attention,” underlines Dr Frank Reuter, the academic manager of the Research Centre on Antigypsyism, which is based at the Department of History of Heidelberg University.

Over a period of four years, the DFG Research Unit is devoting itself to the comprehensive analysis of the background, interconnections and dynamics of antigypsyism in Europe. Besides Flensburg and Heidelberg, researchers from the universities of Gießen, Marburg, and Regensburg are also involved.