Arpad Bak
- Email: gyab@leeds.ac.uk
- Thesis title: Oppressive geographies: Placing Romani ethnic minorities in Hungary's hegemonic heritage landscape, 1890-1990
- Supervisor: Professor Robert M Vanderbeck, Dr Martin Zebracki
Profile
Between the late 19th and late 20th centuries, more than 20 urban memory sites were dedicated in Hungary to prominent persons of Romani ethnicity, a minority group that faces often extreme forms of racialised discrimination. This research examines how, instead of furthering an agenda of inclusion, many of these sites were implicated in the spatial control of Romani communities by the dominant society. Combining critical analysis and historical research, I will show how the everyday life and cultural-political activism of the Roma were kept away from urban centres, a process sometimes aided by hegemonic strategies of pluralising the urban heritage environment.
Research interests
Romani studies
Racism and racialisation
Memory politics and nationalism
Heritage contestation
Creolisation, hybridity and transculturation
Qualifications
- BA/MA English Language and Literature, University of Debrecen, Hungary
Research groups and institutes
- Social Justice, Cities, Citizenship