Between Cultural Appropriation and Ethnic Shifting: The Entangled Histories of Romani Imitation

This conference asks how individuals and groups claim, borrow, or mimic Romani cultural and ethnic markers, and how unequal power relations shape which identities are recognized as (in)authentic or (il)legitimate. By focusing on such processes, the conference examines tensions between creativity and exploitation, belonging and exclusion, as well as lived experience and symbolic appropriation. In doing so, the conference broadens the horizons of Romani studies by systematically analyzing the performance of identities that are not fixed but fluid, situational, and politically charged.