Here is some news that we, BESTROM team, share with extraordinary happiness and pride: our dearest colleague Eve Rosenhaft has just retired with the rank of Professor Emerita of German Historical Studies of Liverpool.
Eve’s trajectory is very wide and her relevant publications embrace different topics such as modern German social history, European colonialism and black studies, the Holocaust, gender history, and -very close to the heart of BESTROM Project- Romani Studies.
Since the publication of her well known book Beating the Fascists? The German Communists and Political Violence 1929-1933 (1983), she entered critical racial studies, combining historiographic and anthropological perspectives. This line of enquiry proved to be fertile, as her many books on that topic illustrate: Civilians and War in Europe 1618-1815 (Liverpool, 2012); Black Germany. The making and unmaking of a Diaspora Community, 1884-1960 (Cambridge, 2013); Africa in Europe: Studies in Transnational Practice in the Long Twentieth Century (Liverpool, 2013); Slavery Hinterland: Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680 – 1850 (Woodbrigde: 2016)´. Soon later, she also specialized in women’s studies and women’s history and it was published Rationale Beziehungen? Geschlechterverhältnisse im Rationalisierungsprozess (1993) and Did women Invent Life Insurance? Widows and the Demand for Financial Services in Eighteenth-century Germany (2004) among many other journal articles and book chapters in later years.
As any follower of our project and blog knows, Eve was a pioneer in the study of the Roma genocide and nowadays is one of the most recognized researchers on the topic. Back in 2004, she wrote the chapter A photographer and his “victims”: Reconstructing a shared experience of the Romani Holocaust 1934 – 1964, which was followed by the Internet publication Das Geschlecht des Misstrauens: NS-Verfolgung der Sinti und Roma, geschlechterhistorich in 2006; the chapter Wissenschaft als Herrschaftsakt: Die Forschungspraxis der Ritterschen Forschungsstelle und das Wissen über Zigeuner and the conference paper The Gypsy’s Revenge‘ – Betrayal and personal retribution as themes in the post-Holocaust experience and memory of German Sinti in 2007; the chapter At large in the “Gray Zone”: Narrating the Romani Holocaust in 2010 and the journal article Blacks and Gypsies in Nazi Germany: the Limits of the “Racial State” in 2011, among many others. Her devoted and sensitive work on Romani Studies includes a co-investigation with Celia Donert on the AHRC Network on Legacies of the Romani Genocide in Europe since 1945 (2018-19); co-leading a seminar on the Romani genocide for HE teachers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (January 2018), the development of exhibitions on the Romani genocide in collaboration with German and South Korean memory practitioners.
Eve’s involvement has been crucial for the design and development of our project. We cannot but be deeply grateful for sharing her wisdom and expertise with us. All our team has benefits of her wider knowledge and her sensitivity approaching complex topics related to Romani History. It was thanks to Eve’s efforts that BESTROM could partnership with AdA, being the result of that synergy the recent performance Und wohin jetzt? [And where to now?] [And where to now?]. Along with Maria Sierra, she has edited the book European Roma Lives beyond Stereotypes, to be published in 2022, which will showcase twelve histories of Roma people and their contribution to European culture and society. These are only two examples of Eve’s valuable commitment Eve to our project. Again, we couldn’t have hoped for better company to this journey.
All our team welcome with joy Eve’s recognition as Professor Emerita, hoping to be able to celebrate it, together, very soon.
* Intro image: Eve Rosenhaft and Jana Muller examine part of the collection of photographs of German Romani Sydney Jones’ Library.
** Full post image: BESTROM team at Helsinki workshop (December 2019).