Between 2012 and 2016, Prem Kumar Rajaram was the Academic Director of the Roma Graduate Preparation Program. Since 2016, he has been running CEU’s other preparatory program targeting refugee students, the Open Learning Initiative University Preparatory Program (OLIve -UP), which is an adapted version of the RGPP model. CEU students who wish to pursue an Advanced Certificate in Romani Studies can also learn from him as one of his courses “Colonialism and Postcolonialism” has become an elective course of the Advanced Certificate Program in Romani Studies.
As our newest RGPP cohort is just familiarizing themselves with CEU and RSP’s place within CEU, we have decided to kick off this year’s interview series with a conversation with Professor Prem Kumar Rajaram. This is what the former Academic Director, Prem Kumar Rajaram shared with us regarding RGPP, including the legacy and purpose of RSP.
Q: - How did you become the RGPP Academic Director in 2012?
Prem K.R.: I took the Academic Director position in 2012. Prior to that, I had known of RGPP, and I had admired its work because I had thought it had a very important work in the context of CEU.
To my mind, RGPP was always motivated by justice. It was trying to address situations where young talented Roma students were met with many complex obstacles towards entering to higher education. It was really motivated by the sense that the university benefits greatly from the presence of students from marginalized backgrounds, including students from Roma backgrounds. It’s vital to be true to CEU’s mission to open up its boundaries, to understand its boundaries that lead to certain types of students getting admission, and certain types of students struggling to get admission.
Given the long historical, cultural, political, and social marginalization that Roma populations in Central-Eastern Europe Roma had faced, it seemed that this was a natural expression of CEU’s mission to try to open up space for Roma students.
Q: - How has RGPP/RSP changed CEU?
Prem K.R.: The CEU community, including the staff and faculty deeply value RGPP and OLIve because they are central to the mission. Nine of our OLIve graduates are in MA programs, and two are in BA programs. In terms of structures, RGPP and OLIVE have brought many important contributions to education at CEU. But because both these programs are externally funded, we struggle at the margins.
Q: - What is the course “Colonialism and Postcolonialism”, an elective course of the Advanced Certificate in Romani Studies, about?
Prem K.R.: I was asked that my course “Colonialism and Postcolonialism” be included in the Advanced Certificate in Romani Studies’ course offering. I accepted it because I like what the RSP Chair, Angela Kocze has been doing, how she has been building on RGPP, institutionalizing the Romani Studies Program and making the sociological, political study of Roma central at CEU.
This course is about colonialism in specific parts of the world. This class is really about the historical genealogy of racism and exploitative capitalism. In this course we will be thinking about concepts and ideas and applying those to other situations.
Over the years I had quite a few RGPP students auditing this course or taking later this course during their MA years. I also had many students who took this course because they were interested in different aspects of race, for example in race-relations in the U.S. and elsewhere. The course can show students how contemporary forms of racialized marginalization are located in deeper, broader political, historical circumstances. The course explicitly says that it is important to understand the dynamics of different communities, not to presume that there is a connection between colonialism in Africa and marginalization of Roma in Europe. We will be trying to understand how contemporary political economic systems arose and how they are built on exclusions and marginalization.
Q: - What is your legacy and the legacy of RSP/RGPP?
Prem K.R: The legacy of the program over the years is the development of brilliant young people who gained the confidence to be able to participate in public debates, and find the voice for themselves and for the Roma, therefore for the Romani community. I think it is very important. It is equally important what we tried to do that we saw the diversity in the ways in which this learning, this autonomy, this critical mindset could be expressed. There were people in the Program who were involved in arts, grassroots social movement, and people were involved in the Romani social movements and Romani NGOs. This diversity of opinion is very crucial. Not to me, not to others but to the students themselves.