Jelena Savic

Short presentation

I am a PhD candidate at the Graduate School in Gender, Humanities and Digital Cultures (GENHDI).

My research aims to explore racialized and gendered aspects of data governance through different technological modalities, focusing on Roma subjectivity in the broader context of global data politics. Pioneering on the feminist intersection of Critical Digital Humanities and Roma-related research and politics, this work establishes the ground for a new field of Critical Roma Techno Feminism.

Keywords

• digital humanities
• digital cultures
• digital justice
• data governance
• data justice
• digital feminism
• techno feminism
• Roma
• Roma women
• critical Roma theory
• race
• critical race theory
• Black tech
• techno-racism
• AI
• theory of whiteness

Biography

I acquired my MA in Philosophy in 2018, studying at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, in the Department of Philosophy under the supervision of Katalin Farkas. My thesis examines aspects of dehumanization at the intersection of scientific sexism, racism, and speciesism.

I hold a BA and an MA degree in Adult Education from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, Serbia. My thesis, defended in 2015, deals with educational barriers for Roma students, focusing on gender.

I have more than twenty years of engagement with Roma and feminist movement. My work experience includes engagement with the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, consultancy for UNICEF, Serbia, cooperation with Open Society Foundations, Roma Education Fund, and other civil society organizations.

One of my interest are comics, literary theory, language and performative poetry.

Research

My research interest in digital culture, gender, and race studies is complemented by research on epistemic injustice and the creation of a critical Roma epistemology. I am the author of concepts such as European gadjo supremacy, gadjo privileges, gadjo fragility, gadjo burden, and gadjo masks.

Courses:

In 2025, in cooperation with Ana Sladojević, an independent curator, I co-authored a series of lectures within the exhibition-platform "Being political" organized at the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Serbia. The lectures are a part of the "Black Sheep Academy", an independent platform for critical Roma approaches I established in 2023.

In 2023, in cooperation with the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Serbia, I co-authored a program for a summer school titled "Racism Without Racists: Institutions of Culture and Heritage" with Ana Sladojević, an independent curator. Piro Rexepi and Sunnie Rucker-Chang were guest speakers.

The main anticipated outcome of the school was the ability to understand race in the European and especially the Balkan context through the institutional approaches to culture and heritage.

My recent work includes:

2025. "Lorde in Serbia: (Re)conceptualizing American and Proposing Mahala-Blackness at the Semi-Periphery”, in Slavic Review special issue on Blackness in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian societies (SEEES) (to be published).

2023. “In the Nest of the She-Dragon: Multiple discrimination of Roma Women in Serbia Within the Context of European Gadjo Suprematism [U Zmajičinom Gnezdu: Beda Romskih Ženskih Ljudskih Prava u Srbiji Unutar Konteksta Evropske Gadžovanske Supremacije] in Treća, Politike Promicanja Ljudskih Prava Danas XXV, no. 1 (2023): 35–56

2022. “Gadjo supremacy and gadjo privileges” Conference paper, Critical Approaches to Romany Studies Conference, Södertörn university, Södertörn, 18-19 February 2022

2022. “Drunken whites” in A Lexicon Of Decoloniality In Eastern Europe: How to Decolonise an Art Organization, edited by Ana Vilenica, kuda.org

2022. “E Laute Bašalen Taj Roven: Roma Voices of Sorrow, The Romani Canon Project. European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), online

My recent public talks include:

2023. Lecture "Gadjo Women's Gadjo Burden: Critical Roma Approaches to Post-Socialist Feminism", held at the Master of Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, subject Gender and Social Movements in Southeast Europe, ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Universita di Bologna, Forli, Italy, February 2, 2022.

2022. Lecture "Queerness as whiteness in the context of European Gadjo supremacy", conference within the Europride program, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade, Serbia, September 13, 2022

2022. Panel discussion “Resistance from the Margins: Recognizing a New Paradigm", at the international conference "Anticolonial Museum", Museum of African Art, Belgrade, Serbia, October 22, 2022.

2022. Panel discussion with Fatima el-Tayeb, in the organization of NDO Bundeskongress, at the conference "KOMM.UNITY! Welche Klasse hat Rassismus?", Berlin, Germany, October 6, 2022.

2022. Book presentation "FEMIZID. Krieg Gegen Frauen" and discussion with Rita Segato, Volksbühne theater, Berlin, Germany, June 18, 2022.

Media

Some of my artistic work includes:

2024. Exhibition and performance at the 60th October Salon "Šta ostaje?/What’s left?", October 20–December 1, 2024, Belgrade, Serbia

2023. Published poetry in the spring online edition of the University of Chicago's independent journal "Packingtown Review"

2016. Published poetry in the anthology "Cat Painters: An Anthology of Contemporary Serbian Poetry", ed. D. Đurić, B. D. Obradović, Dialogos, New Orleans

2004. Published poetry in the collection "Discursive bodies of poetry: Poetry and poetics of the new generation of women poets" AŽIN, Belgrade, Serbia

2004. Book of poetry "Explosive Pieces", Matica Srpska, Belgrade, Serbia

My poetry includes theoretical and political reflections on different issues related to gender, Roma politics, and other interesting topics and it is available on my blog.

Some of my visual essays covering the topics from my papers are available online.

Recently, I started a series of digital comics on the topic of Roma and mental health.