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.
Enmeshed & Entwined: FABRICS OF DEPENDENCY
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.
To find out what to expect, watch our three-minute exhibition trailer filmed during the setup of the exhibition.
The documentary podcast series by BCDSS Research Group Leader Dr. Raquel Razente Sirotti and her PhD Researchers Karolyne Mendes Mendonça Moreira and Mauro Armando Adelino Manhanguele from the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory (MPILHLT) in Frankfurt started last week.
On November 14th, we will be carrying on with the "WHO'S GOT THE POWER?" film and discussion series in cooperation with Förderverein Filmkultur at Kino in der Brotfabrik, Bonn!
In time for Transgender Week, we will be screening DESIRE LINES, an award-winning hybrid documentary that sets out to reframe transmasculine sexuality and history.
Our PhD researcher has won the 2024 Phi Kappa Phi Love of Learning Award!
Contact Us
Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS)
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Managing Director: Jeannine Bischoff
Email: dependency@uni-bonn.de
Press and PR Manager: Cécile Jeblawei
Email: pr@dependency.uni-bonn.de
Address
University of Bonn
Niebuhrstraße 5
53113 Bonn
BCDSS Fellowship Programs
Coordination: Sarah Dusend
Email: researchandstudy@dependency.uni-bonn.de
Deputy: Laura Hartmann
Email: l.hartmann@dependency.uni-bonn.de
Address
University of Bonn
Heussallee 18–24
53113 Bonn