Marija Milinković is a PhD student in history at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad. As a scholarship holder of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia, she is involved in the work of the Institute for Balkan Studies. The focus of her scientific interest are the Romanian-Serbian relations at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
Ljubinka Simić has been working as a teacher of the Romani language with elements of national culture in three elementary schools in the municipality of Knjaževac since 2018. She was engaged as the Roma coordinator in the municipal administration of Knjaževac from 2006 to 2017. She has been an activist in the civil sector for 20 years. Her work focuses on raising awareness among the majority population about Roma and the integration and socialization of Roma within the community. She assisted in writing and translating seven picture books in Romani and Serbian (Gurbet and Arli varieties of Romani). She received the May Award of the Knjaževac municipality in 2023 for her work and dedication. For several years, she has collaborated with researchers from the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts on projects related to the Romani language.
Radovan Asković has been active in the non-governmental sector since the year 2000, promoting and protecting human and minority rights, especially those of the Roma national minority. He has been a collaborator on numerous projects supported by the European Commission, UNICEF, and various ministries of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. In 2004, he received the award for the implementation of actions of special significance for the municipality of Pirot. He is the initiator and creator of the Strategy for inclusive education for Roma and other marginalized children in the municipality of Pirot, which was adopted in 2007. He passionately collects historical facts about the life of Roma in the municipality of Pirot.
Kristijan Jovanović is engaged as a language consultant for the Romani language on the VLingS project. For several years, he has been collaborating on the projects of the “Njegoš” National Library in Knjaževac, working as a scriptwriter in the Romani language and composer. As a native speaker of the Romani language, he actively assists researchers from the Institute for the Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in analyzing linguistic data from the Gurbet variety of Romani. He is an activist in the promotion and preservation of the Romani language.
Miroslav Meržan was born in Kikinda in 1961. He graduated from the Pedagogical Academy and obtained the title of a primary school teacher. He is the founder of the Citizens Association „Rroma Rota“, which implemented over 35 projects with the aim of improving the living conditions of the Roma, particularly Romani children. He was engaged as a coordinator for Roma issues in the municipality of Kovin and in the Center for social work. He is also the founder of the first Romani band in the former Yugoslavia, “Sons of Hendrix”. He has two sons.
From 2006 to 2012, Mira Petrović taught the Romanian language with elements of national culture to the pupils of the “Aleksa Šantić” elementary school in Vajska. Between 2014 and 2015, she worked in the municipal administration of Bač, as a coordinator for Roma issues. Her work on the empowerment and education of the Bayash community resulted in significant changes in the field of language and other rights of the Bayash in Vojvodina, who speak an archaic variety of the Romanian language.
Mircea Măran is history professor at the Higher School of Vocational Studies for Teachers in Vršac. In 2008, he defended his doctoral dissertation entitled “The Cultural Situation of the Banat Romanians 1945–1952” at the Department of History at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad. He is a member of numerous Serbian and international projects, as well as of the editorial boards of several scientific journals. Until now, he has published 25 monographs, 150 scientific articles, as well as many other contributions in the domains of history, anthropology, and pedagogy. Since 2020 he is the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Acta Pannonica (Vršac). He is the editor of the Romanian-Serbian bilingual appendix of the weekly Pančevac (Pančevo). In 2015 and 2018 Mircea Măran received the prize “Culture without Borders” at the International Book Fair in Cluj-Napoca (Romania), as well as the “Andrei Mureșanu” prize for his contribution to the development of historiography in 2018.
Anđelija Miladinović is a junior researcher at the Institute for Balkan Studies and holds the scholarship of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia. She is a PhD student at the Faculty of Philosophy of Belgrade University, and her focus of study are the cultural relations between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Romania.
She is a research trainee at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. Her research interests include the morphology and syntax of Russian and Serbian, as well as of other Slavic languages. She is particularly interested in Slavic minority languages. Currently, Danica Glišić is focusing on the comparative analysis of dependent clauses in Russian and Serbian.
He studied at the Higher School of Vocational Studies for Teachers in Vršac. Apart from his regular duties during studies, Dragan participated in students’ conferences, where he presented his work in the domain of education. His work as an activist, which spreads over two decades, involved participation in the Roma political movement, which has brough about important changes for the Roma community.
Aleksandar Repedžić graduated ethnology and anthropology at the University of Belgrade, and is currently working as a curator ethnologist at the Museum of Ponišavlje Pirot. He is an expert in the field of Vlach culture and has extensive fieldwork experience in the Vlach community of Eastern Serbia. Aleksandar Repedžić has authored numerous books, publications, exhibitions and documentary movies, and has been two times nominated by the National Committee of the International Council of Museums in the category Museum expert of the year.
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