BESTROM is happy to announce that Eve Rosenhaft has been appointed to the Academic Advisory Board of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Institute of Contemporary History).

With our partners the Bremer Shakespeare Company and Aus den Akten auf die Bühne, we are developing a script for a performance focusing on the experiences of two generations of German Romani horse traders. The BSC/AdA partnership specialises in dramatic readings composed entirely of original documents, with scripts compiled by director Peter Lüchinger from material supplied by historians. Usually the documents are assembled by students under the guidance of Dr Eva Schöck-Quinteros at the University of Bremen. For BESTROM, Peter will start with sources generated by the project teams. Dr Schöck-Quinteros’ students will carry out supplementary research and support the project in practical ways as part of their training, for example by transcribing and collating manuscript sources and reflecting on effective ways to communicate the story to different audiences.

Despite the difficult situation caused by the pandemic, the Polish team is continuing the work on the musical culture by the Roma. We are focusing on music- related objects to be found in Paweł Lechowski’s private collection of Romani artefacts.

On the first days of February 2020, as member of the Finnish team working on Romani circus people, Laurence Prempain was in Paris to collect data and meet witness and scholars. This post is made to thanks all people who shared their knowledge and memories.