Students | Romani Studies Program

Advanced Certificate in Romani Studies Program Students

Sara Franciska Szilagyi, Critical Gender Studies 2-year-program (MA)

Sára is a first-year student in the Critical Gender Studies program at CEU. Before this, she completed an undergraduate degree in Psychology, and a master's in Developmental and Clinical Children's Psychology. She currently works at an NGO that connects volunteers with children from disadvantaged backgrounds through mentoring. Her academic interests lie in intersectional feminist research.

Noelia Barbero, Sociology and Social Anthropology 2-year-program (MA)

Noelia comes Argentina, where she studied Social Anthropology at the University of Buenos Aires. She later moved to Italy and completed a BA in Global Humanities at Sapienza University of Rome, with a dissertation on the intersections between LGBT and Roma activism. She currently works at a movement lawyering Dutch NGO, bringing anti-oppressive feminist practices to HR.

She is interested in politically committed research, international solidarity, the intersections of sexuality and ethnicity, representation politics, and the power of artivism. Her MA research will look into the usage of art-based resistance in the Balkans by LGBT+ Roma.

Lucia Cagalova, Political Science 2-year-program (MA)

Lucia holds BA degree in European Studies and pursues MA in Political Science at CEU. In her studies, she focuses on how digitalization impacts democracies, particularly the ability of voters to form fact-based opinions.

Relatedly, she is interested in the way media portrayals and false information shared online perpetuates anti-Roma prejudice, a frequent phenomenon in her home country, Slovakia.

Marc Munshi, Political Science 2-year-program (MA)

Marc is from Germany, Heidelberg and continues their B.A. in Political Science from the University of Salzburg at CEU. Their core interests lie in the intersection of populism, identity politics and minority rights in the European Union. Marc’s interest in Romani Studies stems from the wish to shine a light on the continuous marginalisation of Roma people and how populism intersecting with nationalism impacts them.

Gentian Doci, Nationalism Studies, 2-year-program (MA)

Gentian Doçi comes from Albania. He has an undergraduate degree in Translation and Interpretation as well as an MA in Human rights and Democracy in South-East Europe.

He is pursuing his studies in nationalism. His interest in Romani Studies comes from a human rights perspective. He is also interested in nationalism, media representation and minority rights.

Tyler Stephens, Comparative History 2-year-program (MA)

Tyler comes from Seattle, WA, USA. He went to the University of Washington for his BA in Sociology and Comparative History of Ideas. His areas of focus are on disability, gender, and sexuality and is interested in applying those fields to comparative and transnational histories from Central and Eastern Europe. He is also interested in microhistory and political history. His overlap with Romani Studies comes from an interest he gained after visiting a humanitarian group for Roma in Ostrava, CZ, called “Living Together" where first learned about the difficulties facing local Roma communities, such as discrimination in education, housing, healthcare, and participation in society. He wants to graduate from CEU and then go on to complete a PhD in Berlin.

Cory Dudka, Nationalism Studies, 2 Year- program (MA)

Cory Dudka comes from the United States of America. He went to the University of Wisconsin for his BS in History and Political Science and has a minor in Art History. He wrote his honors thesis on the development and rise of Ukrainian nationalism in the 19th century. His MA thesis will primarily explore Carpatho-Rusyn conceptions of Identity and belonging, to which the RSP Certificate is a great opportunity to learn about minority groups and rights in the region.

Edina Zelenyanszky, Nationalism Studies 2-year-program (MA)

Edina Zelenyanszky is a 2 year student of the Nationalism studies program. Edina's interest in the Romani studies grew out of the political atmosphere dominating her home country, Hungary, where anti-Roma sentiments are sky-rocketing, due to which the Roma population faces discrimination, live in poverty, which comes hand in hand with bad housing sitations, health care issues, unemployment, etc.

In her research, she would like to focus on the Orbán goverment's pro-nationalist policies and their exclusionary, ethnicised character. Within that, Edina intends to study the accessibility of loans that are supposed to boost child birth within Hungary, from the perspective of Roma families.

Fatos Kaytan, MA in Public Policy 2-year-program (MA)

Fatos Kaytan comes from Turkey. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology. After graduation, Fatos started to work with an NGO concerned with Roma Rights.

She graduated from RGPP in 2023. Earning a master's degree from CEU after RGPP was something she always wanted.

Fatos is interested in working on issues such as urban transformation, the right to education, and the right to health. Now, she is in her first year of her MA program.

Maria Aguileria, Gender Studies, 2-year program (MA)

Maria Aguileria comes from Spain. She earned her BA degree in advertising and public relations in Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. In the past, Maria worked at FAGIC, a Catalonia-based NGO for Roma. She graduated from RGPP in 2024.

She is currently in her first year of the MA program. She is interested in advancing both Roma LGBTQ+ people's and women's rights. Maria's main interests are to help young Roma and improve the communication between organizations and society.

Donald Myrteli, International Relations 2-year-program (MA)

Donald comes from Albania. He is also an RGPP alumni, he graduated in 2022. Donald believes that the certificate track fits him not only because he is aso Roma, but also because his openness to learn: he is eager to know and learn more about Roma utilizing academia and research. Donald is a first year MA student.