Romani people have largely been ignored by historians. Only recently has a body of historical scholarship developed that would allow for a critical summative reflection on Romani lives in the past. This roundtable, facilitated by four contributors to this scholarship who work on diverse eras, places, topics and questions, takes stock of this corpus and suggests some tangible benefits to adding Romani people into larger historiographical discussions. In so doing, it aims to motivate and inspire others to consider the lives of Romani people in the histories they tell and provide some practical advice on how to begin this pursuit.

The session will begin with each scholar speaking to how a consideration of Romani lives within their larger historiographical concern has provided exciting and important new insights. Though diversely contextualized, each shows how Romani people have stood at the crux of racializing processes, migratory policies, policing efforts and security regimes. With concerns of racialized immigration control at the forefront of contemporary politics in both Europe and the US, a nuanced consideration of these origins is especially timely. Each historian will then reflect on the challenges and rewards, both practically and conceptually, of doing this work and discuss their motives for considering Romani people in both their scholarship and pedagogy.

The diverse methodologies employed by the panelists as well as the breadth of their expertise should ensure an expansive and wide-ranging audience-driven conversation. Ann Ostendorf, an early Americanist, has written on Romani people from throughout the early modern Anglophone, Francophone, and Iberian Atlantic world. She considers the migrants and deportees whose lives were circumscribed by anti-Romani racism using techniques of microhistory and family history. She will speak to insights into the origins of modern racial thought that only the inclusion of Romani people can provide. The work of Dalen Wakeley-Smith, a 20^thcentury US historian, focuses on the social, political and cultural consequences of Romani immigration. His interests range from cultural appropriation to the bureaucratic structures of immigration control and racially motivated policing. His contribution will focus on the intersecting histories of policing, immigration controls and social policy impacting American Roma. Jennifer Illuzzi, an historian of modern Germany and Italy, focuses on social, political and gender history during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is interested in how Romani histories can be used effectively in the classroom and will consider how Romani studies has shaped both her recent teaching and research projects. Finally, Ari Joskowicz, a scholar of modern Jewish and European history, focuses on histories of relations between marginalized groups and the economic history of memorialization. He will explore the promise and limits of writing entangled histories of Roma and other groups, with a focus on the relations between Jews and Roma, and Jewish and Romani history. Doing so can help us understand current political and legal contexts that shape scholarship.