Destabilizing the Archive: Racialized Silences and Historical Memory in Romania

• In Event: Reclaiming Race Narratives in Romania: Archives, Memory and Reckoning

Abstract

This paper interrogates the concept of the archive as a co-constitutive space where history, memory, and power intersect, focusing on the erasure of Romani histories in Romanian archives. Rather than treating the archive as a neutral repository of facts, I frame it as a dynamic and contested space, shaped by imperial legacies, nationalist projects, and racialized exclusions. Drawing on the work of theorists such as Jacques Derida, Hayden White, and Saidiya Hartman, I argue that the archive is both a tool of state power and a site of resistance, where silenced histories can be recovered and reimagined. By analyzing specific instances of archival omissions and distortions related to Romani slavery and marginalization, I demonstrate how these silences perpetuate structural inequalities and reinforce nationalist ideologies. At the same time, I explore how destabilizing the archive through ethnographic and conjunctural methodologies can recover what I term “eutopian” stories of resistance—narratives that challenge dominant paradigms and illuminate possibilities for social justice. This paper contributes to broader debates about race, memory, and historiography in Eastern Europe, emphasizing the urgent need to confront archival silences as part of a larger project of ethical engagement with history.

Author

• Stefania Cotei, UC Santa Cruz