Event Date: March 26, 2025, 1:00–3:00 PM EST
This compelling documentary theater play, Named Voices, examines the Nazi genocide of Roma in Ukraine during the 1940s and the ongoing experiences of Roma communities under Russia’s current war against Ukraine. The film interweaves stories of Roma people affected by WWII, connecting their past and present struggles. Produced by the Agency for the Advocacy of Roma Culture ARCA in collaboration with the Inclusive Theatre Association ART-PLAYBACK, the film draws upon ARCA’s archives and interviews with Roma provided by the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies. Following the screening, join Nataliia Tomenko, Roma activist and cultural heritage expert, and Lesia Pagulich, Ukrainian queer studies scholar, for a conversation on how histories of violence shape new understandings of care, solidarity, and healing. The film is in Ukrainian with English subtitles (78 min).
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Nataliia Tomenko is a visual artist, curator, cultural heritage expert, and Roma human rights activist from Ukraine. She completed her MA in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, and Management at Central European University in Vienna, Austria. Additionally, she holds an MA in Graphic Design from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. Currently, she is a Deputy Director at the ARCA: Agency for the Advocacy of Roma Culture in Ukraine. Also, she is a coordinator of the History and Commemoration section at the ERIAC: European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture in Berlin. Nataliia combines her artistic production with research, in particular, her study topic is “Safeguarding of Roma Cultural Heritage in Ukraine During the War,” which was developed within a fellow research position at the Forschungsstelle Antiziganismus at Heidelberg University. Meanwhile, she contributes to documenting the active participation of Roma in the civil movement and promotes Roma rights in a diversity of cultural expression.
Lesia Pagulich is a queer feminist researcher from Ukraine. She holds a PhD in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies from the Ohio State University and has recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vienna, Austria. Her research interests lie in the fields of critical race, queer, feminist, and postsocialist studies.
This event is part of the “Transnational Care” book club in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of South Florida. It is sponsored by the USF Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the USF Department of Humanities & Cultural Studies, the USF Institute for Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies, and the USF Humanities Institute.