ROMA AND HEALTH CARE · Health, hygiene and Romani assimilation in Austria and Hungary from an intersectional perspective, 1956-1989

This project looks at the similarities and differences between health care policies and practices in relation to Roma populations under two different political regimes: in Western Hungary under the post-Stalinist phase of state socialism, and Eastern Austria during the same period, following the end of the country’s occupation by the Soviet Union in 1955. The objective of the research is to fill research gaps in and theoretically enrich research on 1.) the history of Roma, 2.) the history of health care, 3.) research on policy studies and Roma.This study intersects several disciplines, such as history, including the social history of Roma and the history of health care, sociology, gender studies, and policy studies.It applies theoretical frameworks and research methodology, in particular intersectionality, in the areas of gender studies and sociology to the fields of Romani historiography and the historiography of health care.The project will be based on qualitative methodology. It addresses the three interrelated levels of 1.) national policy-making in the field of health care in Austria and Hungary, 2.) institutional practice at the health departments of the Municipalities of Vienna and Budapest and two regions with a higher density of Romani population, Burgenland in Austria and Szabolcs-Szatmár County in Hungary, and finally, 3.) the individual lived experience on basis of oral history interviews.The project will be carried out at the Institute for East and Southeast European Studiesof the University of Regensburg under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ulf Brunnbauer.