Dr Ioana Szeman-Ureche

 

Job Title: Senior Lecturer Qualifications: PhD Telephone: +44 (0)20 8392 3896 Email Address: I.Szeman@roehampton.ac.uk

Ioana is a performance studies scholar and an ethnographer. She is completing a book project based on fieldwork carried out over a ten-year period: “Stages of Erasure: Performing Romani Culture and Gypsiness,” where she focuses on Romani/ “Gypsy” cultural performances, and international development and educational projects to examine how neoliberal ideologies reshape definitions of Romani ethnicity, while erasing ongoing inequalities among Romani populations in Romania.
She also started work on a new book project about labor relations in theatrical institutions, with a focus on the first theatre workers’ union in post-communist Romania.

Publications:

Article: “Paradise is Lost, Welcome to the (Romani) World,” (in progress)

Article: “'Gypsy Music' and Deejays: Balkanism, Orientalism and Romani Musicians" TDR, Fall 2009

Article: “Lessons for Theatre of the Oppressed from a Romanian Orphanage,” New Theatre Quarterly, November, 2005

Article: “Finding a ‘Home’ on Stage: A Place for Romania in Europe?” Theatre Research International, July, 2003

Selected Talks and Conference Presentations

2009 “Acting like Trade Unionists: Street Protests and Theatre Reform after Socialism”
American Society for Theatre Research Conference, Puerto Rico, November

2009 “From Romani Musicians to Deejays: Popular Music, Orientalism and the Eurovision”
Invited Participant in the Seminar “Eurovision and the New Europe,” University of Warwick, June

2009 “Performing the ‘Authentic Gypsy’: Romani Musicians and Dancers on Local and Global Stages”
Invited Talk at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, June

2009 “Collecting Tears: Remembering the Romani Holocaust,”
Performance Studies International Conference, Zagreb, Croatia, June
Convener of the “Performance in Historical Paradigms” Working Group

2009 “Ranciere on Human Rights,” Presentation
Jacques Ranciere Study Day, TAPRA “Performance, Community, Identity” Working Group, London, February

2009 “Performance, Education and Romani Children’s Rights: Translating European Standards in Transylvanian Schools”
International Seminar “Living Rights: Theorizing Children’s Rights in International Development,”
Sion, Switzerland, January

2008 "Dispensable Citizenship, Invisible Borders and Migrant Roma in the EU"
American Society for Theatre Research Conference, Boston, USA, November

2008 "'Gypsy Music' Performances, from Balkan Romani Bands to DJ Shantel: Cosmopolitanism, Balkanism and Orientalism"
Performance Studies International Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, August
Co-convener of the Performance in Historical Paradigms Working Group

2007 “Who’s European Here? Romani(Gypsy) Campers, the ‘Third World’ and European Identity”
“Performance and Asylum” conference, Royal Holloway, University of London, November

2007 “Gypsy Music and Avant-garde Performance: Performance in the Self-definition of the Roma in Romania Today” Performance in Historical Paradigms Working Group
Performance Studies International conference, New York, November

2007 “Dancing to Gypsy Music, from Cargo to the Barbican: Romani Musicians, Performance and Young Audiences”
Creolizing Europe conference, University of Manchester, September

2006 “Documenting Gendered Violence in the Streets: Feminist Ethnography and Activism”
American Anthropological Association annual convention, San Jose, CA, November

2006 “Roma, Identity and Performance,” Performance, Identity and Community Working Group
Theatre and Performance Research Association conference, London, September

2006 “Performing ‘Authenticity’: Competing Images of Romani(Gypsy) Life in Post-communist Romania and their Role in Activism”
Crossroads International Conference, Association for Cultural Studies, Istanbul, Turkey, July

2006 “From Exotic Gypsies to ‘Mere’ Peasants: the Limits of Performance in Romani Rights Activism in Romania”
Performance Studies International conference, London, June

2005 “Finding Comfort in Community: Theatre and Resistance in Communist Romania”
Performance Studies International Conference, Providence, RI, March

2004 “From Compassion to Action: Theatre and Civil Society in Post-communist Romania”
Mid-America Theatre Conference, Chicago, IL, March

2003 “Performing for Europe at Its Borders: Romanian Peasants, Gypsies and Orientalism”
Mid-America Theatre Conference, Indianapolis, IN, March

2002 “The Roma and Political Performance in Post-communist Romania”
International Cultural Studies Conference, St. John’s College, Oxford University, UK, September

2002 “Performance and the Legacies of Communism: Taking Theatre of the Oppressed to a Romanian Orphanage”
8th Annual Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference, Toledo, OH, April

2002 “Performing the Orphans and Gypsies: Theatre and Social Change in Post-communist Romania”
Mid-America Theatre Conference, St Louis, MO, March

2001 “Creating an ‘Alternative’: Performance, Transition and the Romanian Orphanages”
Graduate Colloquium in Cultural Studies, Northwestern University, April

2001 “Translation of the Theatre of the Oppressed, Transition to Democracy and Transformation of Social Realities in Romania”
Performance Studies International Conference, Mainz, Germany, April

Selected Theatre/ Performance Projects

2008 Guest on two local television shows about Romani communities and Gypsy dance, Romania, June

2007 Facilitator, international art project, with Caro d’Offay Gallery, Chicago, USA and Traian Dirjan School, Cluj, Romania, October

2006 Organizer and teacher, theatre workshops with children from the Roma community of PataRat, Cluj, Romania, July

2001 Co-creator and performer, ensemble piece “What Was My Face before I Was Born,” Wallis Theatre, Northwestern University

2001 Writer and director, “Theatre of the Mind,” Wallis Theatre, Northwestern University

2000 Writer and performer, one-person multi-media performance “Camouflage: the Body as a Battlefield,” a feminist critique of gender ideologies and (post)communism, Wallis Theatre, Northwestern University, June and Cluj, Romania, July

1997 Organizer, first Theatre of the Oppressed workshop in Romania, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, February

1997 Organizer, international workshop on clown techniques, with “Caravane Théâtre,” France and “Galerie Unart,” Germany, in Cluj, Romania, June

1997 Co-organizer and participant, “Alternative” project (Theatre of the Oppressed and clown workshops with young people from Baia de Cris orphanage, Romania); organizers: “Amphytrion,” “Caravane Théâtre” and “Galerie Unart;” sponsors: French Foreign Ministry, “Society for the Abandoned Romanian Children,” German Foreign Ministry, Open Society Institute, Romania, July-August

1996 Founding member and vice-president, “Amphytrion Cultural Foundation for European Integration,” Cluj, Romania

Postgraduate Supervision

Ioana is currently supervising postgraduate work on community theatre in post-conflict zones, performance art and performance as research.

She welcomes research projects in the following areas: performance ethnography; documenting performance practice through (auto)ethnography; performance and politics/ avant-garde/ social change; postcolonial and feminist theory; gender, nation and performance; Roma/Gypsy cultures and performance; “Europe” as ideological construction and the EU; performance and theatre in East Central Europe; community performance, Theatre of the Oppressed.

Language Skills

Romanian: native proficiency

English: reading, speaking, writing—excellent

French: reading, speaking, writing—excellent

Hungarian: reading—good; speaking—fluent

Italian: reading, speaking—good

Romani: reading, writing, speaking—good

Membership of professional bodies

American Anthropological Association

Association for Cultural Studies

Performance Studies International

Theatre and Performance Research Association

American Society for Theatre Research

Qualification Details

PhD, Northwestern University
MA, Central European University
BA, Babes-Bolyai University