Angéla Kóczé (nominated by Eszter Varsa) is a sociologist, activist, and public intellectual whose work has fundamentally reshaped understandings of the racialized and gendered inequalities experienced by Roma in Europe. For more than three decades, she has worked tirelessly against the intertwined systems of racial and gender oppression targeting Roma, uniquely combining community engagement, participatory research, and transformative policy work. Her professional trajectory bridges academia, civil society, and high-level policy advocacy. She created one of the earliest higher-education support structures for Roma university students and advanced Roma rights within European Union policy frameworks .

She is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Romani Studies Program as well as Academic Director of the Roma Graduate Preparation Program at Central European University. She has published and co-edited widely, both academically and in policy arenas, producing foundational analyses on racialization, Romani feminist politics, and structural inequality. Her recent books include The Roma and Their Struggle for Identity in Contemporary Europe (with Huub van Baar, 2020). Her forthcoming monograph, Romani Women at the Edge of Neoliberal Europe (Manchester University Press, 2026), reflects over a decade of ethnographic and theoretical engagement with Romani feminist thought.

Her contributions have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, including the 2013 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award, Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholar and 2023 Beth Rickey Award from the Bard Center for the Study of Hate. She is a passionate educator, continues to mentor emerging Romani scholars. Her work not only documents injustice but also advances emancipatory pathways for Roma in higher education.