RAFAEL
BUHIGAS JIMÉNEZ

Rafael Buhigas Jiménez holds a PhD in Contemporary History from the Complutense University of Madrid, where he has spent his entire academic career, having taught on the History, Art History and Musicology degrees. His main research focuses on the social integration of the gypsy population in urban societies, especially during periods of repression such as the Franco dictatorship. His doctoral thesis was on "Roma and the urban crisis in Madrid (1959-1986): surveillance, marginalisation and political action". He currently works as a research technician at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, as coordinator of the project "DocRoma. La imagen de los gitanos en el documental", which deals with the construction and representation of gypsies in the media and in contemporary visual arts. In addition, his other lines of research focus, for example, on the conflict and political belonging of the Gitanos, for which he has recently published the book "A reflection on Roma anarchism" (Calumnia, 2023). He also works on transatlantic Roma migrations and, especially, on the methodological development of Critical Roma Studies within Spanish historiography, the first results of which have already been published in indexed scientific journals. He has carried out research stays in London, Buenos Aires and Mexico City, and in the last decade he has become prominent in the field of Roma social movements. This has led him to communicate his results not only in academia but also in dozens of public and private institutions, promoting the transfer of knowledge in the political sphere and in society in general with numerous interventions in 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). From September 2024 to April 2025, he is a Pearl Resnick Postdoctoral Fellow of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington DC, United States of America).