Why are Romani childhoods important? This lecture examines Romani and Traveller childhoods, with background details about who these communities are and where they live; a short survey of Romani history; the main obstacles to accessing early years education and care services they face; examples of successful initiatives to address these challenges; assessments of Romani positive parenting programmes that have been developed, and a look at some of the challenges around transitions from family to preschool, and preschool to primary school, for Romani parents and children, with a short description of the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller Education Support Services that exist in the U.K. and the Roma mediator programmes that have operated in Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Kosovo, and Romania.
Dr Adrian R. Marsh is of U.K. Romany-Traveller origins, working with Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities and NGO's (ERIAC; the RomArchive; and the Romani Cultural & Arts Co.) in the U.K., Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus, and across Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. He gained a PhD in Romani Studies from the University of Greenwich, a joint MA in Russian modern history (School of Slavonic & East European Studies) and Turkish area studies (School of Oriental & African Studies), University of London (1998), and was awarded a first-class honours BA degree in East European history at SSEES, University College London (1996). He also won the Andrew Ferguson Memorial Prize for his dissertation on women and power in the Ottoman Empire (1996). He has taught Romani Studies courses in London, Istanbul, Malmö, Lund, Stockholm, Cairo, Diyarbakir.
The Lecture will be provided in English. Translation into Azerbaijani will also be provided.
