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    Markéta Hajská

    Markéta Hajská is a senior researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Central European and Balkan Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University (CUNI). Within the ROCIT project she is a co-principal investigator of the Czech team, coordinating the Romani Studies/CUNI team.

    Hajská obtained her PhD at the Institute of Ethnology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University. Her research focuses on the history of Roma in Czechoslovakia, Romani migration, intra/interethnic contacts, and Vlach Romani.

    Since 2014, Hajská has been a researcher and lecturer at Charles University’s Seminar of Romani Studies. Between 2019 and 2023, she was an investigator for the project “Genocide, Postwar Migration and Social Mobility: Entangled Experiences of Roma and Jews”, focusing on the history of Vlach Roma in Czechoslovakia in both the pre-war and post-war periods. She has extensive experience in research with Romani communities Czechia, Slovakia, and with Czech Roma abroad in Great Britain and France. Hajská has also managed several Roma-focused research projects in linguistics (Vlach Romani Dictionary, 2016; Expansion of Vlach Romani Dictionary, 2017) and oral history (Voices of Vulnerable Children, 201–17; Negotiated Stories, 2008–2010). She is fluent in both Vlach and North-Central Romani.

    Selected publications:

    BOOKS

    • 2024. The Stojka family. Spatial mobility and territorial anchorage of Vlax Roma – Lovara in former Czechoslovakia. Prague: Karolinum Press.

    ARTICLES

    • 2022. “We had to run away”: The Lovára’s departure from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to Slovakia in 1939. Romani Studies, 32(1): 51–83.
    • 2020. Forced settlement of Vlach Roma in Žatec and Louny in the late 1950s. Slovenský národopis, 68 (4): 340–64.
    • The presentation of social status on a social network: The role of Facebook among the Vlax Romani community of Eastern-Slovak origin in Leicester, UK. Romani Studies, 5 (29): 123–58.
    • Economic strategies and migratory trajectories of Vlach Roma from Eastern Slovakia to Leicester, UK. Slovenský národopis, 65 (4), 357–82. doi:10.26363/SN.2017.4.01

    SELECTED PROJECTS

    • 2022: Manager and key investigator of the project “Tvorba materiálu pro výuku olašské romštiny” (Production of teaching materials for Vlax Romani), supported by Úřad vlády ČR. 
    • 2019–23: Investigator in the project “Genocide, Postwar Migration and Social Mobility: Entangled Experiences of Roma and Jews,” supported by GAČR. 
    • 2018–21: Leader and coordinator of the Czech team for the project “Romani studies at universities in Europe: Development and Innovations,” supported by Erasmus+/Strategic partnership for higher education.
    • 2018: Key investigator of the project “Oral History of Czechoslovakia and the Vlach Roma,” supported by Bader Philanthropies. 
    • 2017: Manager and key investigator of the project “Rozšíření slovníku olašské romštiny” (Expansion of Vlach Romani Dictionary), supported by the Office of the Government, Czech Republic. 
    • 2015−17: Project manager of “Hlasy ohrožených dětí” (Voices of Vulnerable Children), supported by Norway Grants − EEA Grants.