Mr Marcel Courthiade, Famous Researcher and Promoter of Rromani Culture, Was Born on The

Marcel Courthiade

Mr Marcel Courthiade, famous researcher and promoter of Rromani culture, was born on the 2nd of August 1953 in Albania.

All his life he was deeply involved in promoting and enhancing a better understanding of Rromani culture. Already at the University in Clermont-Ferrand (France), apart from the medical career, he undertook as well the Slavic linguistics studies, where he expanded his skills and knowledge in the area of Serbo-Croatian and Polish language. He accomplished his master degree at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures (civilisations) at the University of Paris, being graduated in Albanian, Macedonian and Polish. Straight afterwards, Mr Courthiade started the PhD project about the “Phonemics of the Rromani dialectal varieties and graphical diasystem of the Rromani language". In the meantime he was involved in works of some NGOs active in the educational projects concerning the Rromani community, such as Rromani baxt Kindergarte in Albania. He coordinated the Rromani baxt office and kindergarten, as well as managed several cultural and educational projects. For 4 years he worked as well as a political press analyst and interpreter at the French Embassy in Albania. In 1995, after having successfully defended the PhD thesis, Mr Courthiade started to work as an associate professor in Rromani socio-linguistics at the Practical School of High Studies (EPHE). From 1997 to present time, he has been an associate professor in Rromani language and culture at the National institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures (INALCO) at the University of Paris.

He has written numerous articles and contributed to a number of publications; he has recently researched and edited a book on Rromani proverbs.

For over twenty years, Mr Courthiade was engaged in different countries of Europe (Albania, Poland, Serbia – including Kosovo, etc.) in activities focused on minorities. He continues his work in this field by participating in many scientific and cultural events in both Eastern and Western Europe. He has been organizing for several years the International Rromani Summer School, in different countries of Europe, as well as the Congresses of the International Rromani Union, and more recently two international scientific conferences (one on Rromani slavery 1300-1856 and another one on Indian Emperor Harsha).

His mother tongue being French and Rromani, he currently speaks Albanian, English, Serbian, Macedonian, Rumanian, Polish, Greek, Bulgarian and Slovak.