Elena Marushiakova

Elena Marushiakova is a historian and ethnographer of Slovak and Russian origin whose research focuses on Romani Studies. She has lived and studied in both Slovakia and Bulgaria. In 2016, she became a research professor in the School of History at the University of St Andrews. Elena Marushiakova later became the president of the Gypsy Lore Society.

Life Marushiakova started her professional career in the Ethnographic Institute at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, followed by work in the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies and the Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

From 2001 to 2004, Elena Marushiakova conducted research on Roma communities in the former Soviet Union as part of the Universities of Leipzig and Halle's interdisciplinary research program "Difference and Integration". From 2013 to 2014, she was a Professor Fellow in the International Research Centre "Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History" at the Humboldt University of Berlin, in 2015 a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of St Andrews, and in 2016 a Professor Fellow in the Imre Kertész Kolleg at Friedrich Schiller University Jena.

Since September 2016, Elena Marushiakova has been the Principal Investigator of an ERC Advanced Grant and works as a research professor in the School of History at the University of St Andrews.

From 2023, she has been working at the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Marushiakova was the president of the Gypsy Lore Society (2010–2020) and a Funding and Scientific Committee member of the European Academic Network on Romani Studies. From 2020 to 2022, she was co-editor-in-chief of Romani Studies (journal). Marushakova is also the founder and editor-in-chief of the Brill & Schoning Series "Roma History and Culture".

Marushiakova is a holder of the 2009 Fulbright New Century Scholars Award from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.

Marushiakova received, on 7 February 2020, the Doctor Honoris Causa Award of Södertörn University in Stockholm for her great contribution to Romani Studies. The appointment was challenged by academics working in Romani Studies at Södertörn, who considered her work anti-Romani and criticised her contributions to the German school of "tsiganologie". This was disclosed by the Romani-Swedish magazine DIKKO in 2021. Numerous Roma and many scholars from different countries refuted the accusations and expressed their strong support for Marushiakova. In 2022, the Initiative Group for Roma Culture, which includes Roma intellectuals from Bulgaria, honoured Marushiakova and Veselin Popov with the award "Romanipe" for their lifelong activity in the field of Roma studies.

in 2022, in recognition of Marushiakova's scholarly contribution, the Best Historical Materials Committee of the Reference and User Services Association (American Library Association) selected her co-edited volume Roma Voices in History (2021) as one of the best historical materials published in 2020–2021.

In 2023, Marushiakova received the title of Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews.

In 2024, Marushiakova received the Personality of Science and Technology award from the Ministry of Education, Research, Development, and Youth of the Slovak Republic. In 2025, she and Vesselin Popov received the Slovak Academy of Sciences Prize for Scientific Research Excellence for their remarkable publication Stalin vs. Gypsies – Roma and Political Repressions in the USSR.

In 2025, the International Committee of the Gypsy Lore Society, as part of its Annual conference, awarded the Best Book in Romani Studies prize to authors Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov for their book Stalin vs. Gypsies: Roma and Political Repressions in the USSR.

Main activities Elena Marushiakova and her co-author Veselin Popov conducted numerous ethnographic field studies and have published on Gypsies/Roma in Bulgaria, the Balkans, Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, South Caucasus, and Central Asia. Their major works include the first book on the Roma in Bulgaria (1997), a book on Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire (2000), and a book on Gypsies in Central Asia and the Caucasus (2016).

Within the framework of the RomaInterbellum project (ERC Advanced Grant 2016) led by Marshiakova, the following volumes were published: "Roma Voices in History: A Source Book. Roma Civic Emancipation in Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe from the 19th Century until World War II" (2021), "Romani Literature and Press in Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe from the 19th Century until World War II" (2021), and "Roma Portraits in History: Roma Civic Emancipation Elite in Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe from the 19th Century until World War II" (2022).

Marushiakova and Veselin Popov also published in the fields of Roma folklore and oral history – the Studia Romani Series. They initiated the first museum exhibition about Roma in Bulgaria in 1995-1996 and the first international museum exhibition "Roma/Gypsies in Central and Eastern Europe" in 1998–1999 in Budapest.

Marushiakova and Veselin Popov have taught lecture courses and given public lectures at universities and research institutes, and at summer schools in Bulgaria, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Iceland, Finland, Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, the Republic of Moldova, Turkey, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA.