Past Projects
This section highlights previous projects that have shaped my development as a writer and editor. Across research, ethnography, and qualitative methodology, these experiences continue to inform my approach to ideas and creative practice.
With Us Roma (2011)
A doctoral research project in social anthropology examining Romani social life in a small town in the Czech Republic, with a focus on the ethnic identification of Romani women before and after 1989.
Overview
This ethnographic research examines how Romani individuals in a small town navigate everyday social life with Czechs and relationships with each other. Through in-depth narrative engagement with two Romani women, the project explores how experiences of ethnicity, community, and belonging are expressed and interpreted across personal histories. Situating these narratives within broader post-communist contexts, the research highlights how individuals make sense of their social worlds through storytelling.
Research Focus
The project focuses on the role of narrative in shaping understandings of identity, particularly in relation to ethnicity, family, and social relationships. It considers how interactions between Roma and non-Roma influence when and how ethnic identity becomes meaningful in everyday life. More broadly, the research explores how personal and collective histories—especially those shaped by the shared experience of communism—inform contemporary forms of belonging, memory, and social meaning.
Methods
Ethnographic fieldwork
In-depth interviews
Cultural analysis
Archival and media research
Romani Individuality (2014)
As an extension of my PhD research, this project explores how members of a Romani population in a small Czech town perform distinctive actions that distinguish them from other persons in their families and social circles.
Overview
This paper explores how individuals within a Romani community in a small Czech town express personal agency and distinction within the context of family and social life. Drawing on narrative accounts from women’s life histories, it examines how everyday actions—particularly within the private sphere—reflect efforts to balance cultural expectations with individual forms of self-expression.
Research Focus
The project considers how individuality is experienced and expressed within a social context often defined by collective identity. It asks whether and how individual agency can coexist with identification as a Rom, and explores the local and broader social factors that shape these possibilities. Engaging with interdisciplinary debates on individuality, the paper situates these questions within wider social and political discussions of Romani social life in Central Europe.
Methods
Ethnographic fieldwork
In-depth interviews
Cultural analysis
Archival and media research
Relevance to Current Work
These research projects continue to inform my work as a writer and editor, particularly my interest in narrative, creative communities, and the ways individuals make meaning within larger cultural and social frameworks. My background in ethnography shapes how I approach interviews, cultural reporting, and editorial development, with an emphasis on voice, perspective, and lived experience.