The University of Södertörn in Stockholm, Sweden, has conferred the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa on Prof. Dr. Elena Marushiakova. The title is awarded in connection with her contribution to the development of Romani studies and their inclusion as an academic discipline. Elena Marushiakova is an associate professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum of BAS and a professor at St. Andrews University in the UK, where she is currently working on a study of the civil emancipation of the Roma in the periods between the two world wars. She is one of the world’s leading scientists in this field.
Prof. Dr. Elena Marushiakova is the President of the Gypsy Lore Society, the oldest and most respected international organization for Romani studies, established in 1888 in Edinburgh. She is a co-founder and board member of the Network of Academic Institutions in Romani Studies, founded in 2016, which is coordinated by Stockholm’s Södertörn University. She is a member of the editorial board of the journal “Romani Studies” as well as of a number of other academic journals and editions. Elena Marushiakova has worked as a professor at several European universities, including the Humboldt University in Berlin and the University of Leipzig. She is the author of groundbreaking research reflected in a number of monographs (Gypsies in Bulgaria, Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire, Gypsies in Central Asia and the Caucasus, etc.) as well as of numerous studies and articles covering a wide range of historical, ethnographic, folkloristic, political science and other topics.
