Prestigious award “Best Book in Romani Studies 2024” for Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov from the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the SAS
Ethnologists from the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov, have received the prestigious international award Best Book in Romani Studies 2024 for their publication Stalin vs. Gypsies. Roma and Political Repressions in the USSR (Brill, 2024). The award was conferred by the International Committee of the Gypsy Lore Society (founded in 1888) during the society’s annual conference held in Paris.
Following the SAS Award for Scientific Research Achievements, which they received in June 2025, this distinction represents another significant recognition of their long-term and exceptionally extensive archival and ethnographic research—this time on the international stage.
The 47th Annual Conference of the Gypsy Lore Society, held at Campus Condorcet in the Paris district of Aubervilliers from 24 to 26 September 2025, was co-organised by the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Institut des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) in Paris, the Institut Convergences Migrations (ICM), the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and FNASAT Gens du Voyage – Médiathèque “Matéo Maximoff.”
The conference welcomed more than 130 active participants from across the world. The current president of the Gypsy Lore Society is Tatiana Zachar Podolinská, Director of the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Compiled by: Martina Wilsch, Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences