Gypsy Lore Society Young Scholars' Prize
Marian Madison Gypsy Lore Society Young Scholar’s Prize in Romani Studies
The Gypsy Lore Society established the Marian Madison Gypsy Lore Society Young Scholar’s Prize in Romani Studies for the best unpublished paper by a young scholar on a topic in Gypsy and Traveler Studies. The prize is a cash award of $500. When two papers of the same quality are assessed, priority will be given to applicants who are members of the Gypsy Lore Society. The winning paper will be published, after any necessary revisions, in an issue of the journal Romani Studies. The selection committee looks for self-contained scholarly articles of publishable quality that treat some relevant topic in an interesting and insightful way.
In order to be eligible the papers must be:
Written by undergraduate students, graduate students beyond their first year of study and PhDs up to 3 years after awarding of the degree.
A discussion of any topic in the field of Romani Studies.
Unpublished and not under consideration for publication at the time of submission.
Submitted in English.
Between 30 and 40 double-spaced pages.
Submissions should be sent electronically to szahova@yahoo.com and include two documents: (1) the paper, and (2) a separate file containing the title of the paper, an abstract of the paper (no longer than 250 words), the author’s name, affiliation, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone, and date of entry into an appropriate program or of awarding of the PhD.
The deadline for receipt of papers for the current cycle is 31 March 2025. The winner will be announced at the 2025 Gypsy Lore Society Annual Meeting and Conference on Romani Studies.
The committee reserves the right not to award the prize in a given year.
Interested scholars should submit their inquiries and papers to szahova@yahoo.com.
Tamás Hajnáczky wins the GLS Marian Madison Young Scholar Prize Competition
The GLS Marian Madison Young Scholar Prize for 2024 was awarded to Dr Tamás Hajnáczky (Archiepiscopal College of Veszprém and Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary) for his paper The “CS” (Reduced Comfort Level) Housing Program. The Elimination of Gypsy Settlements and Shanty Towns during the Socialist Period in Hungary.
The paper, based on research on decrees and reports issued by the local council apparatus as "secret dossiers" and on sociological studies from the period, discusses the single-party states Gypsy settlement elimination programme in socialist Hungary. The author argues that the ideological background of the communist state's Gypsy settlement elimination programme, the so-called “CS-lakás” programme (CS = reduced comfort level), was based on the unrecognition of the Hungarian Gypsies as a nationality and the policy of forced assimilation for the Gypsies on behalf of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party. The assimilation was mainly envisaged through the dismantling of Gypsy settlements and the dispersal of Gypsies among non-Gypsies.
During the nearly two and a half decades of the CS housing programme, more than 35,000 housing units were allocated, and most of the Gypsy settlements were dismantled. However, new forms of segregation emerged: ghettoised villages and segregated CS-housing settlements. In the last years of the socialist regime, it became clear that the single party-state's policy of forced assimilation of Gypsies had failed and that the segregation of Gypsies could not be eliminated, partly due to the failures of the CS housing programme. Furthermore, some village and town councils prevented the dispersal of the Gypsy settlers among the non-Gypsy population and created "more modern Gypsy settlements" for them.
Congratulations to Dr. Tamás Hajnáczky! We wish him success and inspiration in his research and academic endeavours!
The Gypsy Lore Society established the Marian Madison Gypsy Lore Society Young Scholar’s Prize in Romani Studies for the best unpublished paper by a young scholar on a topic in Romani studies.