Carmen Gheorghe
Carmen Gheorghe is a Roma feminist, activist and scholar. She holds a PhD since 2014 in Political Science on standpoint feminism, addressing Roma women and politics of identities. She has been engaged in civil society for the last 21 years and her main work was focused on roma women and girls rights through grassroots work, community development, gender issues, intersectionality, politics of identity, gender based violence and reproductive justice. She is the co-founder of E-Romnja Association, a Roma feminist NGO in Romania who’s building a new narrative about Roma girls and women in Romania. She was also co/author for articles about Roma feminism, anti-racism for social justice, intersectionality and labour market published in Polirom, Routledge UK, Hecate or Cutra. Since 2018 she is teaches an academic course on Roma feminism and politics of identity at National School for Political and Administrative Studies and Bucharest University. She is an Ashoka Fellow and was awarded by US Department of State in 2022 as one of the 12 Women of Courage in the World.
Ionela Pădure
Ionela Pădure is a 35 years old Roma woman coming from Romania, with a BA in Social Work and a MA in Educational Management, currently PhD student at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris and founding member of the Popular Research and Documentation Center NGO.
Roma rights activist with a focus on the right to education since 2005, has participated in various projects and educational programs implemented at national and international level, which had as direct beneficiaries young Roma.
He has a rich experience as a trainer in thematic courses and workshops on Roma culture and civilization for an audience composed mainly of teachers and local actors, both at national level and abroad, skills developed also from the Roma language and civilization BA program graduated in Paris.
Ionela Padure is the co-author of a book on the representation of the Roma, over time, in photography, a book published in the context of the exhibition “Mondes Tsiganes – une histoire photographique 1860-1980”, under the auspices of the Immigration Museum in Paris. Her contribution addresses the theme of the Roma image in literature, music and fine arts, combining the theoretical part of the specialised literature with the experience of her own representation.
Dr. Margareta (Magda) Matache
Dr. Margareta (Magda) Matache is a Lecturer on Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the co-founder and Director of the Roma Program at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University. She is also a member of the O’Neill-Lancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination and Global Health. Dr. Matache’s research and teaching focus on the manifestations and impacts of racism and other systems of oppression in different geographical and political contexts. Her research examines discrimination, reparations, social determinants of health—including education and social and economic disparities—and their nexus with the historical past and contemporary public policies, with a particular focus on anti-Roma racism.
Sandra Carmona
Sandra Carmona is an Illustrator and Educator. She studied at the University of Malaga, Spain and at the School of Art of San Telmo, Spain.
In 2019 she created the publishing house Altramuz, where she publishes works in which diversity is shown from within, and in which Roma works have a great visibility. She has published, among other books, the children’s story “Alma”, the first story published in Spain where the main character is a Roma girl and where the diverse reality of the Roma people is shown.
As an illustrator, she works with publishers and social entities at a national level.
As an educator, she works with women at risk of social exclusion and uses creativity as an empowering tool. She is an activist for the rights of the Roma people and for the rights of LGTBIQ people.
Sebijan Fejzula
In the last 6 years Sebijan Fejzula served as a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies in the project POLÍTICS- the politics of anti-racism in Europe and Latin America: knowledge production, decision-making and collective struggles and concurrently pursues a Ph.D. in Human Rights in Contemporary Society at the University of Coimbra. She assumes the role of co-editor for the book titled “State Racism: A Collective View from the Perspective of Autonomy and Racial Justice” (2023) and boasts authorship of several articles, including: “Re-thinking Romani Genocide: Political-Analytical Considerations Regarding Roma Suffering in Current Democratic Societies” (2023); “De-Whitening of Romani Women’s Intersectional Experience” (forthcoming); “Anti-Roma Racism, Social Work, and the White Civilisatory Mission” (2022); “The Anti-Roma Europe: Modern Ways of Disciplining the Roma Body in Urban Spaces” (2019); among others. Furthermore, Sebijan stands as a co-founding member of Kale Amenge (Roma for Ourselves), an independent anti-racist Roma political organization dedicated to advancing the collective emancipation of the Roma people and the establishment of Roma political autonomy.
Roxana – Magdalena Oprea
Roxana-Magdalena Oprea is a Roma feminist activist, an expert in equal opportunities, and the communications coordinator at the E-Romnja Association. She has been working in the NGO sector since 2010, implementing and coordinating projects on topics such as community development, human rights, anti-discrimination, and combating school dropout. In 2019, she joined the E-Romnja team as a volunteer mentor for the “Sisterhood” mentoring program, which she later coordinated. Over the past five years, she has led and implemented various projects and initiatives, with her main areas of interest being violence against Roma girls and women, reproductive rights, intersectionality, and anti-discrimination. Since October 2022, alongside Carmen Gheorghe, the president of E-Romnja, she has been teaching the course “The Associative Environment and Public Equality Policies in Romania” as part of the Master’s program “Equal Opportunities Policies in the Romanian and European Context,” coordinated by Prof. Dr. Ionela Băluță at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest.
Joanna Talewicz
Joanna Talewicz is a passionate advocate for diversity and human rights, with over 20 years of experience working with diverse groups, from business professionals to politicians. A graduate of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program at Cambridge’s Judge Business School and a Fulbright scholar, she has lectured at leading universities like Harvard and Columbia. She co-founded and leads the Foundation Towards Dialogue and has collaborated with organizations such as Netflix and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. In 2022, she was awarded the Olga Kersten-Matwin Award by the Batory Foundation.
Marina Csikós
Marina Csikós is a Roma feminist and dedicated gender equality professional. Born and raised in Hungary as a Roma woman, she embodies a passion for social justice that has led her to impactful professional roles. Marina gained her master’s education at the Central European University in Critical Gender Studies, where she focused her research on intersectional justice and feminist knowledge production. Throughout her career, she has worked with feminist initiatives and research, European intergovernmental institutions, foundations, civil society organizations, and art institutions, where she focused on amplifying feminist values and intersectional perspectives. She is also the co-founder of the Feminist Collective of Romani Gender Experts: an initiative aiming to connect Roma gender equality professionals and produce expert knowledge.
Terezia Rostas
Terezia Rostas, a Hungarian Roma born in Romania, is a dedicated and experienced educator, human rights consultant, advocate, and peace activist with over 15 years of hands-on experience. She is the founder of Care for Young People’s Future CIC and Welcoming Cultures UK. Terezia specializes in supporting underserved communities such as Roma, people with disabilities, refugees, and asylum seekers, excelling in monitoring, reporting, and consulting on human rights issues. Terezia is also a member of the Roma Gender Experts collective and her expertise spans Inclusion and Learning Services, Migration, Cohesion, Family Law, Protected Characteristics, and Policies on Heritage, Culture, Health, and Human Rights. Terezia’s work is centred on cohesion, social justice, human rights, and creative practices in research and policies. As a mediator and critical friend advocate, she promotes inclusivity and cultural understanding. At regional and international levels, Terezia influences policies to improve the lives of underserved communities, particularly in areas of heritage and culture. The values she works with and bases her efforts on include togetherness, ethical and moral standards, spiritual and social accountability, collective responsibility, dignity, education, fairness, honesty, humanity, and individual rights. Through her extensive work, she is committed to creating a more equitable and just society.
Vera Kurtić
Vera Kurtić is a feminist, lesbian and a Romani woman from Serbia, living in Berlin, Germany. She is one of the founders of Women Space in Niš, Serbia, the first organization dealing with intersectionality of discrimination against women, and a founding member of the Romani Women Network of Serbia that gathers organizations and groups from across the country into a joint and unified force directed to enhance the position of Romani women. She is a member of RomaniPhen, Berlin, dealing with memory on the Romani and Sinti victims of World War II.
Paz Peña García
Paz Peña García holds a degree in Pedagogy and a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Granada. She is an activist and human rights advocate with a special focus on the vulnerabilities faced by women, particularly Romani women, in academic and social spaces. An expert in Interculturality and Diversity Management, her work centers on promoting inclusive education and developing skills in at-risk populations, especially those of foreign origin and the Romani community. With over 20 years of experience, she has worked with various social organizations (MPDL, FSG, Unión Romaní, CEAIN-Andalucía Acoge) and European projects (ROMPOL, EUROMED, MedVoices), combining academic research with educational intervention. She has collaborated on numerous research teams and is a member of the HUM126 group “Innovation and Improvement of Education in Andalusia” and the Social Media and Inclusive and Ubiquitous Media Education research group at UNED. Paz has an extensive academic output in indexed journals (JCR/SCOPUS), articles, and books, and has participated in numerous conferences on interculturality, active methodologies, gender, and educational technology. She coordinates Service Learning (ApS) at UNIJES and the Guidance, Internships, and Employment Office at UNED-Úbeda (Jaén). She is currently the editor of the journals Ehquidad and Aula de Encuentro (UJA).
Sara Olvera
Sara Olvera holds a degree in Political Science and Sociology (University of Granada) and a Diploma in Advanced Studies from the Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies with the thesis “Building Romani Feminism” (University of Granada). She also holds a Master’s in Applied Research in Feminist, Gender, and Citizenship Studies. Her master’s thesis is titled “Forgotten Women: From the Silent Revolution to the Noisy Revolution of Romani Feminism” (Jaume I University, Castellón). She has had a prolific academic career with training in diverse areas such as sexology, sexual therapy, social and intercultural mediation, gender, equality, interculturality, migrations, etc. In her professional career, she has focused on mediation and combating discrimination, with a particular emphasis on advocating for the rights of the Romani people in areas such as equal treatment, the fight against discrimination, employment, housing, education, and more. She has political and union experience in various spaces and groups but stands out for her work as a Romani feminist. She is committed to raising awareness about Romani Feminism and its key figures. As a scholar of Romani Feminism, she focuses on its protagonists and their contributions. Her main area of study is the genealogy of Romani Feminism within the Spanish context, “from the Romani women’s movement to Romani feminism.” She uses historiography and anthropology tools, working with life stories and biographies of Romani women who have played a significant role in shaping Romani feminist thought and organization in Spain. She works with tools from historiography and anthropology through life stories or biographies of relevant Romani women in the construction of thought and organization of Romani feminism in Spanish territory.
