Paper Short Abstract:

This presentation explores the ethical challenges of researching Roma community memories in Vilnius, focusing on police violence and rewriting dominant narratives while ensuring safety of research participants.

Paper Abstract:

Public discourse on the Roma community in Lithuania, particularly regarding the former Roma settlement of Parubanka in Vilnius, that was demolished in 2020, has been mostly framed as a space of crime, deviance, and social disorder. This dominant narrative contrasts sharply with the memories and experiences of the community, who remember and experience Parubanka differently.

In this presentation, I will discuss my ongoing doctoral research exploring the interactions between Roma and Lithuanian law enforcement, focusing on inclusion/exclusion practices and the ethical challenges of representing these experiences. Having researched and worked with the Vilnius Roma community, particularly from Parubanka, for nearly a decade, I have established trust and rapport with community members, enabling me to gather and amplify their often-unheard voices. However, this research has become more ethically complex. While the public perceives Parubanka through a lens of danger and fear, my research participants share local memories of police violence, humiliation and human rights violations. The challenge lies in how to communicate these findings in a way that rewrites the dominant narratives and offers counter-narratives to the dominating dehumanizing and stigmatizing imaginary of the place and its people, without compromising the safety and confidentiality of the research participants. Reflecting on the ethical dilemmas I face, I aim to discuss how to tell these stories and local memories in ways that open space for justice and dialogue, rather than perpetuating mistrust and further harm.