New Podcast and WDR 3 Interview
Alexander Rothenberg on "Elite slaves and professional football"
World of Roman Bonn
Dependencies and Opportunities 2000 years ago
Enmeshed & Entwined: FABRICS OF DEPENDENCY
Invitation to join the launch of the BCDSS Exhibition on Tuesday, 29 October 2024
New Podcast and WDR 3 Interview
World of Roman Bonn
Enmeshed & Entwined: FABRICS OF DEPENDENCY

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.



Events
Manumission workshop
Niebuhrstraße 5, ...
09:30 AM
During this event, we would like to explore the nature and significance of manumission of enslaved people from a global perspective. Drawing on a variety of ...
Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Andrew Pottorf
Hybrid Event: On-site in ...
04:15 PM - 05:45 PM
How did political shifts in southern Babylonia during the third millennium BCE impact land and social status? For most of this period, independent city-states ...
Comp. Approaches to Power and Dependency in the High Middle Ages
Niebuhrstraße 5, 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...

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

Address

University of Bonn
Heussallee 18–24
53113 Bonn

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