Welcome to the Cluster of Excellence at the
Bonn Center for Dependency & Slavery Studies

"Beyond Slavery and Freedom:
Asymmetrical Dependencies in Pre-Modern Societies"

We are a research cluster within the framework of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.

We investigate profound social dependencies such as slavery, serfdom, debt bondage, and other forms of permanent dependency across epochs, regions and cultures.

Our focus lies "beyond slavery and freedom", i.e. we aim to overcome the binary opposition of "free" and "unfree".

Instead, we propose the new key concept of "asymmetrical dependency" to explore all forms of bondages across time and space.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Publications

Videos & Recordings

Enmeshed & Entwined: FABRICS OF DEPENDENCY

Bild © Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies / YouTube

BCDSS exhibition launches digitally!

What can textiles – coarse cloth or fine silks, work and household linen, clothes in different styles and fashions – tell us about different forms of dependency: enslavement, serfdom, forced labour, or in our own day, factory work in the Global South?

Visit our digital exhibition ‘Enmeshed and Entwined: Fabrics of Dependency/Verstrickt und Verwoben: Texturen der Abhängigkeit’ and let our "quilted narratives" help you explore these and further questions.

BCDSS Blog

Scholarly Sparks: Insights from the PhD Seminar in Leiden 2024
Dec 02, 2024
Academia: Next Generation
Nov 04, 2024
More…

News

Congratulations to Prof. Dr. Pia Wiegmink!

We are very happy to announce that BCDSS Prof. Dr. Pia Wiegmink is part of a joint research project entitled „Unfreedom, Voices, Redress: Plantation Cultures of the Western Pacific“ that has been granted 882,000 AUSD by the Australian Research Council! Chief Investigators of the four-year project are Professor Penny Edmonds, of Flinders University, and Professor Deirdre Coleman, of University of Melbourne. Professor Dr. Pia Wiegmink is Partner Investigator alongside Dr. Margaret Mishra (University of the South Pacific), Dr. Oliver Lueb (Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne), and Ms Imelda Miller (Queensland Museum).

a new Publication by Michael Zeuske

Prof. Dr. Michael Zeuske presents the history of enslaved people in Africa, the Atlantic, and the Americas, with a focus on Latin America and the early capitalist-slave societies such as Cuba, Brazil, and the United States, which were based on what is now known as "second slavery." It examines how this history connects to the emergence of the term "Afro," highlighting that, although often considered an American creation, it is, in fact, of Cuban origin.

Archaeologies of Dependencies in Latin America (Special Issue-Second Volume)

New Edited Volume By BCDSS PhD Researchers Nabhojeet Sen and Adam Fagbore

Dies Academicus: Enmeshed & Entwined: Fabrics of Dependency

Exhibition curator Dr. Beatrix Ihde-Hoffmann will give a short introduction - in German - to the current BCDSS exhibition, on display at the Bonn University and State Library - ULB - until 20 December 2024.

Dies Academicus: Slavery and Abolition in Global Perspective

Marking the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery (2 December), Henriette Rødland, Sean Kelley and Bahar Bayraktaroğlu will present their research perspectives on abolition at the University of Bonn's Dies Academicus on 4 December 2024 from 14:15 - 15:45.

All News Items

Events

Tuesday Jan 07, 2025 until Jan 08, 2025

Comp. Approaches to Power and Dependency in the High Middle Ages

Heussallee 18-24, 53113 ...

10:00 AM

This workshop is organised in honour of two medieval historians – Alheydis Plassmann and Björn Weiler – who spent their careers championing comparative ...

Monday Jan 13, 2025

Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Kristina Sessa

Hybrid Event: On-site in ...

04:15 PM - 05:45 PM

How did late Romans experience disasters and military conflicts? Many scholars argue that these events contributed to the Empire's decline. However, this ...

Wednesday Jan 22, 2025 until Jan 24, 2025

Current Trends in Slavery Studies in Brazil II

Universitätsforum, ...

02:00 PM

Brazilian histories of indigenous and black slaveries provide a particularly rich source for understanding dependency categories. From the 16th century ...

Tuesday May 06, 2025 until May 08, 2025

Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies: Perspectives from Asia

University of Bonn

Whole Day

Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies: Perspectives from Asia, Past & Present This event addresses the underrepresentation of Asia in labor and slavery studies ...

All Events

Contact Us

Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS)

Subscribe to our email list and get all of the latest news!
The Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies is on Facebook, Instagram and X (Twitter)! Follow us and stay updated.