Roma Archive Digital Collection

The Roma Archive is the first digital collection devoted specifically to the Roma community in Bulgaria. Its aim is to show the history and memories of a people which have been invisible to the general Bulgarian public, and who are usually portrayed by the media in terms of deviant social and cultural behavior. The collection was created by the Balkan Society for Autobiography and Social Communication (BSASC). It includes numerous autobiographic interviews, rich visual materials, and a variety of other documents and images containing information on the Roma community in Bulgaria taken from Bulgarian State archives. One of the main themes of the collection is the fate of the Roma minority under communism, during which it was subjected to frequent assimilation campaigns and when expressions of Roma culture was severely restricted. The collection aims to contribute to the democratization of historical knowledge, raising the profile of Bulgaria’s Roma community as well as increasing awareness within the community of the value of historical documents. At the same time, the ongoing process of building the collection itself contributes to overcoming ethnocentricity in Bulgaria’s education system. It strengthens intercultural dialogue and aids in the educational potential of Roma community members. The Roma Archive help makes the Roma more visible in Bulgarian society, education, and academia.

罗马档案是首个专门致力于保加利亚罗姆民族数字收藏的集合。其宗旨在于呈现一个长期被保加利亚公众所忽视的民族的史实与记忆，该民族通常被媒体以偏离社会和文化行为的形象进行描绘。该收藏由巴尔干自传与社会交流协会（Balkan Society for Autobiography and Social Communication，简称BSASC）创建，内容涵盖众多自传体访谈、丰富的视觉材料，以及多种其他文档和图像，这些资料均源自保加利亚国家档案馆，详述了保加利亚罗姆民族的信息。该收藏的主要主题之一是罗姆少数族裔在共产主义时期的命运，期间他们频繁遭受同化运动，罗姆文化的表达受到严重限制。该收藏旨在推动历史知识的民主化，提升保加利亚罗姆社区的地位，并增强社区成员对历史文献价值的认识。同时，构建该收藏的持续过程本身亦有助于克服保加利亚教育体系中的民族中心主义，强化跨文化对话，并助力罗姆社区成员的教育潜能。罗马档案有助于使罗姆人在保加利亚的社会、教育和学术界更加可见。