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.
BCDSS 2024: A Year in Highlights
Bild © Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies / YouTube
BCDSS 2024: A Year in Highlights
2024 was filled with milestones. Watch our highlights video to see what we accomplished together – thank you for being part of our journey!
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.
News
© BCDSS
New Publication: Special Issue of 'Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History', edited by V. Bartash and A. Pottorf8
Congratulations to BCDSS Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Vitali Bartash and Dr. Andrew Pottorf (University of Cambridge) on the publication of a special issue on 'Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia' with the Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History.
© BCDSS
New Article by Christian Mader9
New Article by BCDSS Researcher and Coordinator of the Research Group "The Archaeology of Dependency (ArchDepth): Resources, Power and Status Differentiation," Dr. Christian Mader:
"Mapping and Geospatial Analysis of Ancient Terrace Agricultural Systems in Lucanas Province, Peruvian Andes, Based on Satellite Imagery, High-Resolution DSMs, and Field Surveys" (Geoarchaeology, Volume 40, Issue 2).
© BCDSS
New Podcast with Christian Mader10
Listen to the latest episode of Auf den Spuren alter Kulturen, a podcast series produced by the Marburg Center for the Ancient World (MCAW), in which BCDSS Research Group Leader Christian Mader discusses pre-Columbian studies, an integrative research approach to ancient agricultural terraces, and dependency.
© BCDSS
New Publication by Martin Schermaier, Julia Winnebeck, and Matthias Becher11
The latest addition to the Dependency and Slavery Studies book series has been released: "Norms of Dependency in Late Antique and Early Medieval Societies: Contextualising Roman Legal Terminology," edited by BCDSS members Martin Schermaier, Julia Winnebeck, and Matthias Becher, is now available via open access.
© BCDSS
Monday, 2 June 2025, 19:00 at Kino in der Brotfabrik, Bonn12
Join us on Monday, 2 June 2025, when we screen and discuss two short documentary movies from West Africa, both linked by the themes of (social media) activism, slavery, violent repression, and the fight for visibility and recognition of rights, dignity and freedom.
The event is part of our film and discussion series WHO'S GOT THE POWER, jointly organized by the BCDSS and Förderverein Filmkultur Bonn.
We are very pleased that one of the filmmakers, Lotte Pelckmans from the Centre for Advanced Migration Studies, Copenhagen University, Denmark, will be present. She is currently Senior Fellow at the BCDSS and will be joined for the discussion by three further BCDSS members:
Mary Aderonke Afolabi-Adeolu, PhD Researcher, BCDSSBoluwatife Akinro, PhD Researcher, BCDSSProf. Dr. Ana Lucia Araujo, Senior Fellow, BCDSS
© BCDSS
BCDSS Secures Additional Seven Years of Funding as Cluster of Excellence13
The Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) at the University of Bonn has been awarded an additional seven years of funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of Germany’s prestigious Clusters of Excellence program.
“This is a clear commitment by the German Research Foundation to establishing Historically Informed Dependency Studies as a distinct and visible new field across the humanities,” said Prof. Stephan Conermann, the cluster’s speaker.
© BCDSS
New Publication: Special Issue of Journal 'Life Writing', edited by Jennifer Leetsch and Pia Wiegmink14
Congratulations to former BCDSS member Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jennifer Leetsch and BCDSS Professor Dr. Pia Wiegmink on the publication of a special issue on '(In)Dependent Selves: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Life Writing, Slavery and Dependency' with the journal Life Writing.
Exhibitions on Fashion, Identity, and Dependency at the Global Heritage Lab15
From 16 May to 12 October 2025, the Global Heritage Lab will display two exhibitions dealing with questions of fashion, identity, and dependency:
Dressing Resistance. Fashion and the Heritage of Mission & Enmeshed and Entwined - Fabrics of Dependency
Events
Research Colloquium with Michael Zeuske17
HYBRID: On site ...
05:00 PM - 06:30 PM
Geliebte Sklavinnen. Deutsche Kaufleute und ihre versklavten Frauen in der Second Slavery
Noch bis um 1860 spielte sich die breite globale Wirtschaftsdynamik ...
Interdisciplinary Workshop: Entangled Lives18
Impulse - House for ...
11:00 AM
Humans have long relied on animals to survive and build societies, yet these entanglements—and their impact on human relationships—are often understudied. With ...
Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Marcy Norton19
In person event: Impulse ...
04:15 PM - 05:45 PM
Over the course of millennia Indigenous and European cultures profoundly diverged in how they organized their relationships with other animals. ...
Juneteenth Lecture with Kinohi Nishikawa20
Bonner Universitätsforum,...
06:00 PM - 07:30 PM
The "afterlife of slavery," a concept coined by Saidiya Hartman and rooted in the work of Hazel V. Carby and Hortense Spillers, explores how the legacy of ...
Knowledge Dependencies and the Un/Making of Equitable Futures21
Tulpenfeld 6, 53113 Bonn
Whole Day
Amid escalating geopolitical instability, authoritarian retrenchments, and the deepening securitisation of knowledge-making, this conference critically ...
Contact Us
Managing Director: Jeannine Bischoff27
Email: dependency@uni-bonn.de
Press and PR Manager: Cécile Jeblawei28
Email: pr@dependency.uni-bonn.de
Address
University of Bonn
Niebuhrstraße 5
53113 Bonn
BCDSS Fellowship Programs
Coordination: Sarah Dusend29
Email: researchandstudy@dependency.uni-bonn.de
Deputy: Laura Hartmann30
Email: l.hartmann@dependency.uni-bonn.de
Address
University of Bonn
Heussallee 18–24
53113 Bonn
Links
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/about-us/bcdss2
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/about-us/third-mission/diversity-equity-inclusion/home
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/research/publications
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/videos-and-recordings
- https://dependency.blog
- https://dependency.blog/how-to-avoid-animal-species-becoming-extinct-twice
- https://dependency.blog/the-weight-of-water-and-the-cost-of-labour-reconstructing-the-past-with-roman-concrete
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/news-bcdss/new-publication-special-issue-of-journal-of-ancient-near-eastern-history-edited-by-vitali-bartash-and-andrew-pottorf
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/news-bcdss/copy_of_new-article-by-christian-mader
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/news-bcdss/new-podcast-with-christian-mader
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/news-bcdss/norms-of-dependency-in-late-antique-and-early-medieval-societies-contextualising-roman-legal-terminology
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/news-bcdss/film-screening-discussion-human-rights-activism-in-western-africa
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/news-bcdss/bonn-center-for-dependency-and-slavery-studies-bcdss-secures-additional-seven-years-of-funding-as-cluster-of-excellence
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/news-bcdss/new-publication-special-issue-of-journal-life-writing-edited-by-jennifer-leetsch-and-pia-wiegmink
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/news-bcdss/exhibitions-at-the-global-heritage-lab
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/news-bcdss/all-news
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/events/research-colloquium-with-michael-zeuske
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/events/interdisciplinary-workshop
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/events/joseph-c-miller-memorial-lecture-by-marcy-norton
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/events/juneteenth-lecture-with-kinohi-nishikawa
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/events/knowledge-dependencies-and-the-un-making-of-equitable-futures
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/events
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- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/about-us/people/management/managing-director
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/about-us/people/management/press-and-pr-manager
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/about-us/people/management/head-of-research-and-study
- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/about-us/people/management/phd-coordinator