Slavery, Cultural Trauma, and Romani Identity

Between Reconciliation with the Past and Internal Coloniality

Authors

  • Adrian-Nicolae Furtună Sociologist and PhD candidate, Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29098/crs.v9i1.213

Keywords:

Collective memory, Cultural trauma, Mnemonics, Roma identity, Slavery

Abstract

This article develops and tests a methodological approach for studying the memory of Romani slavery that transcends oral history and archival research sources, treating local mnemonics – such as oikonyms, spatial morphology, and institutionalized sources – as carriers of memory. By grounding and applying this methodology to the case of Dezrobiți village, I show how the cultural trauma of slavery reveals itself even where silence, denial, or fragmentation obscure direct narratives, collective memory, and symbols.

Author Biography

  • Adrian-Nicolae Furtună, Sociologist and PhD candidate, Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy

    Adrian-Nicolae Furtună is a Romani sociologist and researcher at the Research Institute for Quality of Life of the Romanian Academy, where he is also enrolled in a PhD program. He is affiliated with the University of Bucharest, in the Department of Romani Language and Literature, and works in the Research and Documentation Compartment of the National Centre of Roma Culture. He is also a research fellow at New Europe College. In 2012, he founded the Romane Rodimata Centre for Cultural and Social Research. He holds a BA in Sociology and an MA in Advanced Sociological Research. 

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Published

11/25/2025

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2026): Racialized Slavery in Moldavia and Wallachia: Legacies and Silences

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Adrian Nicolae Furtună

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How to Cite

Slavery, Cultural Trauma, and Romani Identity: Between Reconciliation with the Past and Internal Coloniality. (2025). Critical Romani Studies, 9(1), 140-157. https://doi.org/10.29098/crs.v9i1.213