Country of residence

Czech Republic

Brief introduction

Assistant professor, Pardubice University

Education

PhD, ethnology/anthropology, 2011, Charles University, Prague, Institute of Ethnology

Academic profile

My dissertation focused on the professionalization and survival strategies of the Romani NGO in the Czech Republic. I was interested in how the professionalization changes the functioning of the NGO and its legitimation strategies and showed how inequalities arise in seemingly equal NGO setting. The fieldwork was coupled with several years of volunteering for the NGO.   Before my PhD research I was interested in migration of Slovak Roma to the Czech Republic and establishment of social boundaries in Slovakian villages.   Recently, I coordinate researches at the government Agency for social inclusion, that is working very much in applied research. My work consists of creating research proposals together with local consultants or experts of the Agency, choosing external researches, overseeing their work, commenting on other researches in Ministries, collecting data from institutions for research and evaluation purposes.   The topics of the research the Agency is doing range from the studies of social exclusion, housing situation, or most recently an analysis countering media stereotypes about “waves” of migrating Roma bringing criminality to one remote and deprived region, where protests were held by non-Roma, politicians and Neo-Nazi groups. I hope one day I will be free to reflect on my applied experiences.

Publications

• 2010. Claiming legitimacy in/of a Romani NGO. In: Stewart, Michael – Rövid, Márton, eds. Multi-disciplinary Approaches to Romany Studies. Central European University Press. Pp. 280-291.
• 2008. Posilování hranic a teritorializace v Dolině (Strenthening borders and territorialization in Dolina). In: Jakoubek, Marek – Hirt, Tomáš, eds. Rómske osady na východnom Slovensku z hľadiska terénneho antropologického výskumu 1999-2005 (Romani settlements in Eastern Slovakia from the point of anthropological research 1999-2005). Bratislava: Nadácia otvorenej spoločnosti OSF. Pp. 601-628.
• 2006. Roma Nation and Excluded Individuals: Transformation of European Initiatives in Czech Republic. In: Spalová, Barbora – Grygar, Jakub, eds. Anthropology at Borders: Power, Culture, Memoire. Prague: FHS UK and MKC Prague, pp. 25-36.

Keywords

NGOs, applied research, policies towards Roma

Contact

hana.synkova@gmail.com browse members list