Dr. Rafael Buhigas Jiménez

Professional Background

Rafael Buhigas Jiménez received his PhD in contemporary history from the Complutense University of Madrid for his dissertation "Roma and the Urban Crisis in Madrid (1959-1986): Surveillance, Marginalization, and Political Action." Dr. Buhigas Jiménez currently works as a research technician at the Autonomous University of Madrid and as a project coordinator for "Documenting Roma: The Image of the Roma in Documentary Film,” which deals with the construction and representation of Roma in contemporary media and visual arts. His main research focuses on the social position of the Roma population in urban societies, especially during periods of repression such as the Franco dictatorship. His other research focuses on the conflict and political belonging of the Roma, as can be seen in his book A Reflection on Roma Anarchism (Calumnia, 2023). Dr. Buhigas Jiménez also works on transatlantic Romani migration, focusing on the methodological development of critical Romani studies within historiography, the first results of which have already been published in indexed scientific journals. 

As a Romani historian, Dr. Buhigas Jiménez has disseminated his research findings beyond academia, engaging with numerous public and private institutions, including political entities and the general public through the press, radio, and television. He is also an academic member of the "History and Commemoration" department of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) and the coordinator of the project and a member of the team "Documenting Roma: The Image of the Roma in Documentary Film," which is being developed in Spain under Dr. Lydia García-Merás at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Fellowship Research

Rafael Buhigas Jiménez was awarded the Pearl Resnick Postdoctoral Fellowship for his research project, “The Romani People Before, During, and After the Porrajmos: Daily Life and Material Culture Through the Visual Heritage of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1926-1946).” His project examines the process of permanence and transformations experienced by the Romani people in the first half of the 20th century, with the central point that the genocide was the culmination of persecution suffered since medieval times. His research is based on the analysis and interpretation of visual culture to understand how documentaries and recordings —as surveillance, control, and classification devices— contributed to the support, creation, and dissemination of anti-Roma narratives and representations that affected their subsequent integration into postwar Europe. 

This fellowship allows Dr. Buhigas Jiménez access to the Museum’s collections of dramatic and documentary films and photographs in which the Roma appear as protagonists at different times between 1926 and 1946. In this way, Dr. Buhigas Jiménez can continue working on a compendium of articles on the contemporary representation of Roma in visual media, with a special focus on the period of the genocide. 

Residency Period: September 1, 2024 – April 30, 2025