Yasar Abu Ghosh
Yasar Abu Ghosh
QUALIFICATIONS
2008 Ph.D., Ethnology, Charles University, Faculty of Arts, Prague
2000 DEA, Social Sciences, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
2001 Mgr., Ethnology, Charles University, Faculty of Arts, Prague
PRINCIPAL RESEARCH INTERESTS
War and Violence; Economic Anthropology; Marginality and the State; Politics of Memory; Race and Racialization; Fugitivity; Romani and Domari people; Western Asia (Palestine/Jordan)
RESEARCH PROFILE
It cannot be said that my research interests have followed an organic progression, in which I would exhaust one topic and move on to the next. I would rather say that several topics have continually accompanied me and, over time, the conceptual registers through which I re-examine these topics have changed.
The first theme is life on the margins. I have studied the survival strategies of Roma who were severely affected, economically and socially, by the post-socialist transition. My research in a Roma community in South Bohemia examined how its members find alternative means of livelihood outside the labour market. These practices produce their own temporal and affective frameworks. From these frameworks arise social figurations in which the relationship between the "established" and the "outsiders" is constituted. Lately, I have also begun to explore how these figurations relate to processes of racialisation.
The other theme is my oldest: the social and political recognition of the Nazi persecution of the Roma. This interest first led me to research Roma. It has never been only academic. For more than 25 years I have worked in this field, formed close relationships and taken part in activities that raise awareness of the history of the Nazi persecution of the Roma. My involvement has run alongside the history of the Romani struggle for recognition, and my earlier ethnographic notes have since become a historical source in their own right. Out of this work comes my current question: how memory emerges as a political and narrative instrument. This is the subject of my book project, Memory Becoming.
In connection with my involvement in a new ERC project (Romani families in an age of war (RAW), PI Martin Fotta), my focus is shifting towards investigating the impact of wars on the Dom (ghajar) communities in Western Asia, particularly with regard to the form(-ation) of their kinship within complex geopolitical contexts and state projects between Palestine, Israel and Jordan.
Edited Volumes and Special Issues
2013 Etnografie: improvizace v teorii a terénní praxi (co-editor Tereza Stöckelová). Slon: Praha (in Czech).
2008 Special issue “Roma and Gadje”, Anthropology of East Europe Review (co-editor Krista Hegburg).
2007 Special issue “Social anthropology in/of postsocialism”, Czech Sociological Review 42(1) (co-editors J. Grygar, M. Skovajsa)
Articles (non peer-reviewed)
2002 The Manoeuvres of Geertz’s Culturalism. Cargo: Journal for Sociocultural Anthropology 1-2 (2002): 95-102. (in Czech)
1999 A Method and Its Context: The Optical and Political Fallacy of Cultural Relativism. Cargo: Journal for Sociocultural Anthropology 2 (1999): 149-155. (in Czech)
Book Chapters
2023 Introduction: Of Loss and Resilience. In Romani Chronicles Of Covid-19: Testimonies of Harm and Resilience. P. Gay y Blasco and M. Fotta (eds.). New York. Oxford: Berghahn.
2023 The impact of the pandemic on activism and the activist: interview with Jozef Miker. In Romani Chronicles Of Covid-19: Testimonies of Harm and Resilience. P. Gay y Blasco and M. Fotta (eds.). New York. Oxford: Berghahn.
2013 Úvahy o etnografii: od dogmatu k heterodoxii. In Etnografie: improvizace v teorii a terénní praxi. Slon: Praha (co-author Tereza Stöckelová).
2010 Crediting Recognition: monetary transactions of poor Roma. In Multi-disciplinary Approaches to Romany studies. M. Stewart and M. Rövid eds. CEU Press: Budapest.
2008 Introduction: Roma and Gadje. Anthropology of East Europe Review 25(2): 5-12 (co-author Krista Hegburg).
2007 Ethnographic research in focus. Czech Sociological Review 42(2007): 1, pp. 6-12, (co-authors J. Grygar, M. Skovajsa, In Czech).
Research Reports
2006 Institute of Economic Studies: Teaching economics and transition. Eastern Enlargement – Western Enlargement. Cultural Encounters in the European Economy and Society after the Accession (Dioscuri project, 6th Framework programme).
2006 Comparative perspectives on the transferability of Aviles project for the Czech Republic. Peer Review report on Municipal program of shantytown eradication in Aviles (Asturias), online: http://www.peer-review-social-inclusion.net/peer-reviews/2006/social-integration-of-roma-people-municipal-programme-of-shanty-towns-eradication-in-aviles/comment-paper-czech-republic
Latest conference papers/Invited talks
2025 June 5. “Memory Becoming”. Mirjam Moravcová Seminar, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague.
2025 December 12. “Magic and Unthought: Genocide Denial and the Weaponisation of Antisemitism in Czechia“. The Gaza Genocide as Seen from East-Central and South-Eastern Europe: Between Complicity, Silence and Solidarity, University of Konstanz.
2025-2030 Romani Family in an Age of War (RAW). ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2024-COG), Horizon Europe, European Commission, grant agreement No. 101170655. Researcher.
2023-2024 Tackling antigypsyism through research and pedagogy, collaborative project developing as participative research with the aim of creating a research network and shared study module of decolonial pedagogy; University of St Andrews and Charles University Joint Seed Funding
2012-2013 Ethnography: from a dogma towards a heterodox understanding, collaborative research on contemporary challenges of fieldwork practice; research group co-director (with Tereza Stöckelová), Faculty of Humanities funding SVV-2011-263701.
2009-2011 In the Arms of the State, historical-cum-ethnographic research on the microphysics and macro-logics of a variety of social policies targeting Roma re-education as a precondition to full social citizenship; funded by GACR (Czech Grant Agency) as a post-doctoral research fellowship 409/09/P607.
2010-2012 Money of the Poor, collaborative research on the uses and meanings of money among the poor, broadly understood as people with difficult access to cash money; research group director, Faculty of Humanities funding SVV-2010-261701.
2007 Roads to ghettoization, multi-field and comparative research on patterning in geographical and social exclusion of Roma communities in CZ; field expert and case study author; IVRIS, Masaryk University, Brno.
2006 Teaching economics in transition, Dioscuri Project; fieldworker and case study author; Masaryk University, Brno.
2004 Anthropologies of Roma identity, desk-research of comparative ethnography on Roma identity/ies; CVVOE, Charles University in Prague.
2001–2005 Survival strategies of Roma, dissertation research on “survival strategies of long-term unemployed Roma in a rural proto-ghetto”, multiple funding, EHESS, Paris and Charles University in Prague.
2000–2001 Czech ethnographies of Roma: in search of authenticity, research for a mémoire ad-hoc (mostly archival) on Roma as the internal Other in the objectivist tradition of Czech ethnological scholarship between the wars, Laboratoire de sciences sociales (ENS/EHESS).
1999–2000 Between memory and history: the Lety controversy in public discourse, an ethnographic and historical research on the ritualization of the past in memory and history as revealed through a public controversy over the historical significance of a concentration camp for Roma in Lety (South Bohemia); Charles University (1999), EHESS (2000).
Board Memberships
Ongoing Member, International Advisory Board, Prague Center for Romani Histories
2012 Member, European Academic Network on Romani Studies.
2008 Founding member of the Czech Association for Social Anthropology (CASA) and acting Vice-president until 2012.
2006–2007 Member, Board of experts to the Governmental Council for Roma Community Affairs, CZ.
2006–2010 Independent expert, EC program; peer reviewing on Municipal programme of shantytown eradication in Aviles (Asturias).
2005–present Member, European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA).
1999–2005 Advisor, the Committee for the redress of Roma Holocaust (VPORH).
1998–2010 Member, editorial board of Cargo: the journal for social/cultural anthropology
External Reviewing
Project Evaluation: Charles University Grant Agency (GA UK)
Book Proposal and Manuscript Evaluation: Berghahn Books; SAGE; Karolinum; Slon.
Journal Articles Manuscript Review: American Ethnologist; Ethnography; Bulletin Muzea romské kultury; Cargo: Journal for Cultural and Social Anthropology; Český lid; Romano Džaniben; Romani Studies; Slovenský Národopis; Sociólogia; Sociologický časopis-Czech Sociological Review
Doctoral Thesis Examination: Faculty of Humanities, Charles University; Faculty of Arts, Charles University; Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
Teaching Experience
2021-present Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University
2018-2021 adjunct, lecturer in Social Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University
2008-2018 Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University
2016 Fulbright Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley, Department of Anthropology
2012 (June) Visiting Professor, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
2011-present Faculty, NYU Prague
2008 (July) Visiting lecturer, Central European University, Budapest, SUS “Multidisciplinary approaches to Romani studies”
2007 (Spring) Visiting lecturer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Eastern European Studies Honours Program
2009-2012 Chair, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague
2005-2008 Teaching Assistant, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague
Scholarships and Awards
1998 New York University scholarship – visiting post-graduate student (4 months scholarship).
1999-2003 Scholarship of the French Government for post-graduate studies (4 years scholarship).
2000 Travel grant, ENS/EHESS, Laboratoire de sciences sociales.
2001 Open Society Fund scholarship for summer school program at CEU, Budapest.
2001-2002 Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship (7500 USD).
2004 Chevening Scholarship of the British Council in Prague (6 months scholarship).
2016 Fulbright-Masaryk Fellowship
07/2022 DAAD Fellowship, University of Konstanz
06-07/2025 DAAD Fellowship, University of Konstanz
Conference and Workshop Organization
2025 November, 6–8. Ageing of Anthropology, Ageing in Anthropology. 8th Biennial Conference of the Czech Association of Social Anthropologists, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice (co-organizers Adam Horálek, Milan Durňak, Ema Hrešanová, Hedvika Novotná, Petra Ponocná, Barbora Stehlíková)
2011 September, 2-3. Of Cosmopolitanism and Cosmologies. 2nd joint Biennial CASA-SASA Conference, Telč, Czech Republic.
2009 September 21–22. What Is Capitalism and What Comes Next? 1st Joint Biennial SASA-CASA Conference. Pezinok, Slovakia (co-organizers Zdeněk Uherek, Luděk Brož, Jakub Grygar).
