Ian Hancock, professor of English, linguistics and Asian studies at the University of Texas-Austin, and one of the world’s foremost scholars on Romani history and human rights issues, is visiting the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to present a public lecture entitled “Gypsies vs. Roma: The Price of Identity.” Students, researchers and anyone interested in human rights/social justice issues are encouraged to attend.

Hancock’s talk will cover the academic effort to recover a lost history, the roots of “Romaphobia,” the origin of the literary/fictional “gypsy,” efforts to standardize the Romani language, the Holocaust, slavery and the current socio-political situation for Roma. “Ian’s visit is indicative of UNL’s timely efforts to highlight and support social justice in connection to ongoing scholarship about human rights in the US and elsewhere”, said Theresa Catalano, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education (TLTE) in UNL’s College of Education and Human Sciences.

While on campus, Hancock will also speak with TLTE graduate students and visit Catalano’s class on Intercultural Communication.
Hancock serves as director of the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at Texas and has served as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, as an ambassador to the U.N. Economic and Social Council and as a representative to UNICEF.
For more information about Hancock’s scholarly work, visit http://go.unl.edu/jqij.