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

BCDSS Hoodies & T-Shirts are here!

You can now try them on at Niebuhrstraße.

New Publication "Dependent: Global Perspectives on the History of Resources and Slavery"

In the volume, edited by Martin Bentz, Nikolai Grube and Patrick Zeidler, seven of our cluster members illuminate "strong asymmetrical dependencies" related to fabrics from a cross-cultural and diachronic perspective. However, they also go beyond the resource of textile and examine the diverse spectrum of human dependency relationships in connection with basic foodstuffs and luxury foods. It is the companion volume to the BCDSS exhibition.

New Article by Jutta Wimmler

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.

All News Items

Events

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 ...

Thursday Jan 23, 2025

“Vagrants, Vagabonds, Immorals”: Film Screening

Universitätsforum, ...

05:00 PM - 06:00 PM

Join us for the screening of “Vagrants, Vagabonds, Immorals", a documentary directed by Nina Tedesco and Paulo Terra (Brazil 2024). The film focuses on the ...

Wednesday Jan 29, 2025 until Jan 31, 2025

Slave Labor, Strong Asymmetric Dependency and Social Mobility

Niebuhrstraße 5, D-53113 ...

05:00 PM

Workshop "Slave Labor, Strong Asymmetric Dependency and Social Mobility in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Cuba ...

Monday Feb 10, 2025

Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Opolot Okia

Hybrid Event: On-site in ...

04:15 PM - 05:45 PM

The passage of the International Labour Organization’s Forced Labour Convention (No. 29) in 1930 was a momentous event in global labor history, signaling an ...

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.