Harvard researchers shine light on Roma children in Serbia
Magda Matache was just back from a summer break when her high school teacher told her to stand in front of the class and asked, “Why are you so black?” A member of the Roma and a Harvard instructor, Matache recalled the question and the sense of shock and humiliation that followed during a recent interview on campus. “I was poor, I was Roma, I was dark-skinned, I was in a wealthy white high school,” she said. “Slowly I felt that I didn’t belong, and I didn’t want to belong.” With help from supportive teachers and friends, she kept studying, attended college, and eventually earned a master’s degree in European social policies and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Bucharest. Currently a mid-career master in public administration candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School, she is also the head of the Roma Program at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health...