On the November 4-5, we had our fourth onsite meeting, this time we were hosted by Institue of Ethnology, CAS in Prague. The agenda was fully packed with reserach discussions and plans, as ususal, but it was not only this – our meeting coincided with the International Romani Language Day and meeting with Ukrainian Romani veterans.
As per our tradition we also held public lecture, on Tuesday, November 4: “Solidarity as Care and Contestation: Displaced Ukrainians and Local Actors in Prague and Budapest” with Violetta Zentai and Natalia Dziadyk from the Central European University (CEU).
Abstract: This public lecture explores the relational and transformative dimensions of solidarity with displaced people from Ukraine in Central Europe, drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Prague and Budapest. It brings together two distinct yet deeply interconnected research projects, rooted in different urban contexts. One of us examines solidarity in grassroots learning spaces in Budapest, co-created by displaced Ukrainians, Ukrainian-speaking expats, inclusive faith-based actors, and local grassroots groups. The other traces the collaborations between displaced Ukrainian activists and Prague-based solidarians engaged in anti-war advocacy and awareness-raising. By bringing these two empirical contexts into conversation, we highlight how solidarity functions as a form of commoning and care – emotional, practical, and political. Across both contexts, solidarity moved beyond acts of help toward co-created spaces that challenged exclusionary structures and redefined belonging, while contestations over language, visibility, and institutional control simultaneously unsettled and transformed these spaces. Bringing together the concepts of contested solidarity, care, and prefigurative politics, we highlight how displaced people and local solidarians co-create and re-negotiate spaces of cooperation, healing, and resistance.
Violetta Zentai is a social anthropologist, professor at the Departments of Public Policy and Sociology and Social Anthropology, and senior researcher at the Democracy Institute of the Central European University (CEU), Vienna–Budapest. She also worked as an expert with the Open Society Foundations for two decades on democratic local governance, equality mainstreaming, and rights-based development.
She was co-founder and director of the Center for Policy Studies at CEU (2003–2020) and served in the core group of the Open Learning Initiative (OLIve), the refugee education program of CEU (2016–2022).
Her research focuses on ethnic–racial and gender in/equalities, post-socialist socio-economic transformations, and pro-equality civil society formations. She has also been engaged in collective research on migrant solidarity, social movements for intersectional social justice, and resistance to illiberal political trends.
Her most recent articles were published (2025) in Critique of Anthropology, Social Inclusion, and the Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies.
More information: https://people.ceu.edu/violetta_zentai
Natalia Dziadyk is a PhD Candidate at the CEU Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations, and a Junior Visiting Researcher with the Inequalities and Democracy Working Group at the CEU Democracy Institute.
Her PhD project examines how Ukrainian citizens displaced by Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 engaged in political activism in Prague, (re)shaping local politics and solidarity relations.
Her recent articles have been published in Citizenship Studies and the Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies. She served as Chair of CEU’s Migration Research Group for three years.
She has also contributed to a research project on the civic and political engagement of people with migrant backgrounds in Prague (InBáze – a platform for civic participation of migrants) and participated in the HORIZON 2020 project Skills and Integration of Migrants, Refugees, Asylum Applicants in European Labour Markets (SIRIUS) at Charles University.
She regularly consults for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and is a former Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM).More information: https://dsps.ceu.edu/people/natalia-dziadyk
That same day, in the evening, we had a chance to attend a Film and Roundtable with Ukrainian Romani Veterans (Dům národnostních menšin, Organised together with SCOS.Praha). Run by our colleague, Janush Panchenko, the meeting featured the documentary “The War Made Me This Way” by Suspilne, followed by a discussion with Ukrainian Romani veterans about their experiences — their service, return, and transition to civilian life.
To celebrate International Romani Language Day on November 5, the ROCIT team organised a public workshop entitled ‘Romani Language in Scholarly Teamwork’. The workshop featured contributions from international experts who demonstrated the diversity and vibrancy of the Romani language in current research and practice.
Monika Szewczyk and Sonia Styrkacz (both from the Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw) spoke about Romani in Poland and the challenges it faces today regarding its use and codification, as well as many misconceptions about it coming from academic environment.
Michael Beníšek (Faculty of Arts, Charles University) and a Romani journalist and activist Viktor Čovka from Ukraine contributed a talk on Romani and its dialects in Ukraine. Yanush Panchenko (Zaporizhzhia National University, EU CAS) presented his creative mapping of Romani dialects. Finally, Jan Ort (EU CAS) and Markéta Hajská (Faculty of Arts, Charles University) presented a paper on the use of Romani as a language of communication in academic projects.
The morning workshop was followed by an evening event at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, organised by students of the Romani Studies programme. Our project staff also participated in this event. Attended by over 150 people, the evening event focused on the Romani language and literature. Both events were moderated by our researcher Iveta Kokyová. Both events received very positive feedback from the public, confirming that Romani has a firm place at the university – a fact that was confirmed once again on 5 November.
A significant part of the meeting was also dedicated to writing practices and publication planning. As work on project outputs – particularly monographs – continues to advance, we held two focused writing sessions. These were co-led by ROCIT’s Principal Investigators, Kamila Fiałkowska and Martin Fotta, and addressed key aspects of writing research articles, as well as preparing a book monograph (the latter led by Martin Fotta). Designed to support participants beyond the immediate needs of the project, these sessions offered practical guidance and tools that will be valuable for future academic writing and publishing.
The meeting concluded with a discussion on conducting research in and from Transcarpathia, critically reflecting on questions of positionality, ethics, and scholarly engagement in this particular region of Ukraine in the context of ongoing wartime conditions.
These were two intense and inspiring days, generating much food for thought. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all participants for their substantive contributions, insightful discussions, and engaged participation. We are also grateful to the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences for hosting our meeting and for providing an excellent institutional setting that facilitated productive scholarly exchange.
