News and Events

How did court dwarfs navigate their unique social status in early modern German courts? Despite being perceived as privileged dependents, they served various roles such as entertainers, playmates, and symbols of princely status. This talk delves into aspects of their lives, exploring recruitment, legal standing, and opportunities for social advancement. Contrary to past associations with slaves and pets, a nuanced perspective emerges by analyzing their position within broader asymmetrical dependencies in early modern court societies. Adopting an intersectional approach reveals "small differences" between social groups.

How did the life and work of Johannes Manissadjian, a successful scientist during the Armenian genocide, contribute to understanding the disappearance and dispersion of indigenous lives and knowledge? Using biographical methods and archival material, this lecture will highlight the impact of mass violence on Ottoman Armenians and emphasizes the agency of genocide survivors. Additionally, it explores Manissadjian's post-genocide scientific involvement and indigenous knowledge production in the context of Adorno's 'after Auschwitz' discussions.

BCDSS PhD Researcher Anas Ansar will lead a post-screening discussion on contemporary slavery / human trafficking at the WOKI Cinema Bonn, on 11 February, 17:30h. Every year, millions of people around the world, mainly women and girls, fall victim to modern-day human trafficking. Over a period of seven long years, Helen Simon researched and listened to people whose stories had previously gone unheard. This documentary by Helen Simon, Germany 2021, will be screened in the original languages (Afrikaans, Arabic, Czech, Dari, English, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Swahili) with German subtitles. Duration: 91 minutes Please note: cinema ticket fees apply. To book tickets in advance see the Woki website below. The discussion will be held in ENGLISH.

The next reading and discussion will feature Anne Haeming, the author of 'Der gesammelte Joest: Biografie eines Ethnologen,' published by Matthes & Seitz in 2023. Join Pia Wiegmink and Jennifer Leetsch on 15 February 2024 as they query the author on the creative processes involved in writing about Wilhelm Joest, a nineteenth-century German ethnographer and traveller; the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne traces its origins to his private collection of over 3,500 objects. Please note that this an onsite event. However, for remote attendees we are offering a Zoom streaming (with microphones disabled). See below for the link. The discussion will be held in English.

What were the intricacies of slavery in 18th and 19th-century Nepal? This talk explores slavery's typology, the role of slaves in social order, processes of enslavement/emancipation, and analyzes the Ain, the 1854 legal code, examining its incorporation of Hindu legal norms in regulating the complex slavery system.

Did the ancient Greek sex trade rely on enslaved labor? This Lecture delves into the link between sexual labor and slavery in Greek comedy and oratory, exploring it as a cyclical practice. Abundant evidence in Athens sheds light on sex laborers, covering acquisition, manumission, and integration into the enslavement system

How did the term "bracero" evolve from identifying landless peasants in the late nineteenth century to representing Mexican contract workers during World War II? This lecture delves into the contested history of the Bracero Program, analyzing its coercive operations and poor conditions through primary sources, including those from the Archivo General de la Nación and the Bracero History Archive. Examining perspectives from workers, growers, unions, public opinion, and government representatives, the discussion questions the program's impact on dependency and asymmetrical relations.

How did Roman law perceive the distinction between freedom and enslavement? While initially stark, this division was permeable, allowing individuals to transition between statuses. This talk delves into the fluidity of this line, focusing on gratitude and obligation, particularly the concept of the "ungrateful freedperson." Despite cultural assumptions that freed individuals owed perpetual gratitude to their former masters, Roman law empowered patrons to charge ingratitude, leading to various penalties, even re-enslavement. The dynamics were most apparent in marriages between freedwomen and their patrons, shedding light on Roman notions of liberty and enslavement.

*****************UPDATE: Unfortunately this lecture had to be cancelled.********************************** Can postcolonial capitalism's global development reveal a standard, and what are its political implications? Explore this with scholars like Lowe, Roediger, and Chakrabarty, and then delve into Du Bois and Fanon's insights on the interplay of colonialism, race, and capitalism. Analyze the "black radical tradition" and its impact on understanding primitive capital accumulation. Conclude by questioning how Du Bois and Fanon's racial and colonial insights resonate in contemporary metropolitan centers.

As co-organizers, we are delighted to announce an upcoming workshop that delves into the intricate theme of "Forms of Freedom during Slavery in Latin America: History, Approaches, and Archives." The workshop is a collaboration between the BCDSS and former BCDSS fellow Prof. Dr. Carolina González. This event brings together historians to share their experiences and research inquiries on the enslavement of people of African and indigenous origin in Latin America from the 17th to the 19th centuries, with a focus on various forms of freedom in different contexts. The discussion will be structured around three themes: History, Approaches, and Archives.

"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," Simone de Beauvoir argues in her famous book The Second Sex, published in 1949. This has come as no surprise to historians since the 1990s, as women's and gender studies have identified numerous examples that argue against historically defined, biological gender roles. In this light, we ask what historically characterized a man or a woman and how were gender identities defined, for which there are long abbreviations today? What definitions and ideas of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ were there in the first place? And: Did this broad variance in gender identities also exist in historical and transcultural comparison? The perhaps surprising answer is: Of course! You will learn more about this with the help of three illustrative contributions on Europe and Asia by researchers from the Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies. A short series of three presentations will be held in German and English.

Join us as historian Ana Lucia Araujo discusses her latest book, 'The Gift: Exploring the Influence of Prestigious Objects in the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism' in an engaging reading and discussion session. The book explores how objects of prestige contributed to cross-cultural exchanges between Africans and Europeans during the Atlantic slave trade. Drawing on a rich set of sources in French, English, and Portuguese, as well as artifacts housed in museums across Europe and the Americas, Ana Lucia Araujo illuminates how luxury objects impacted European–African relations, and how these economic, cultural, and social interactions paved the way for the European conquest and colonization of West Africa and West Central Africa.

Machtausübung geschieht in Judentum und Christentum auf vielfältige Weise, ohne dass dabei auf rohe Gewalt zurückgegriffen wird. Über Jahrhunderte hinweg haben sich in beiden Religionen Hierarchien und asymmetrische Abhängigkeiten entwickelt, die teilweise sogar als konstitutiv für jüdische und christliche Gemeinschaften angesehen werden. Dabei wurden Prozesse etabliert, um Autorität zu sichern und die Ausübung, Verteilung und Weitergabe von „sanfter“ Macht zu regeln. Bei dieser Tagung steht die Frage im Mittelpunkt, wie sich diese Formen von Autorität und Macht in unterschiedlicher Weise institutionell manifestieren, beispielsweise in Ritualen, disziplinären Systemen oder synodalen Entscheidungen. Darüber hinaus fragen wir auch danach, wie religiöse Autoritätspersonen (Lehrende, Amtsträger und - trägerinnen) die Anhänger der jeweiligen Religion auch individuell, zum Beispiel mittels Charisma, Bildung und Tradition, beeinflusst und auch manipuliert haben.

How does Augustine's Confessions reveal the often-overlooked lives of women, children, and the enslaved in fourth-century Roman Africa, shedding light on their agency amid societal constraints?

Join the book presentation and discussion with Dr. Jeroen Wijnendaele, postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Dr. Julia Hillner's project "Connecting Late Antiquities". This book delves into the significant political, social, economic, religious, and cultural changes that shaped a crucial region of the Roman world during the second quarter of the first millennium CE. Key features include its status as the first modern research volume on Late Antiquity's core region, a tight chronological focus on the transformation of Late Roman Italy, and a balanced exploration of topics like gender and environmental history. The volume reevaluates the pivotal transition in Late Antiquity, specifically the shift from the Roman Empire to autonomous kingdoms in Italy between 250 and 500 CE.

How did enslaved individuals in the Americas navigate the path to freedom? Focusing on Trujillo, Peru, this lecture contends that legal manumission alone did not guarantee freedom. Instead, it argues that enslaved individuals, particularly in 17th-century Trujillo, strategically combined debt and manumission agreements. Analyzing notarial records, the study shows how these individuals, following the examples of scholars like Kathryn Burns and others, used the public recording of debt to assert financial autonomy and reputational responsibility. Enslaved men positioned themselves as providers in patriarchal roles, while women used debt agreements to claim municipal subjectivity and honorable casta identities. This dual strategy was a conscious step toward freedom in a gendered context.

How did Mary Astell question the apparent contradiction between the freedom of all men and the perceived enslavement of all women? This lecture reexamines women's economic status in early modern Europe, probing the link between their economic position and personal freedom. It highlights gender inequalities in work tasks, employment forms, and pay levels, presenting new evidence from England and comparing it to research on Sweden and Germany. The lecture critiques two theoretical frameworks—economic choice and feminist patriarchy—arguing their insufficiency. Instead, it explores the concept of women's freedom/unfreedom, drawing on ideas from the history of slavery, Carole Pateman, and Amartya Sen for a deeper understanding of economic gender inequality roots.

Join the Facebook Live discussion and Q&A featuring the former BCDSS Bonn-Yale-Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Fellow Dr. Frank J. Cirillo and his new LSU Press book, "The Abolitionist Civil War: Immediatists and the Struggle to Transform the Union." The presentation will take place from 2–2:30pm, followed by a 10-minute Q&A.

Don’t miss our third and last film screening this year in cooperation with Kino in der Brotfabrik: PARIS IS BURNING, a landmark documentary from 1990 by Jennie Livingston (USA). Documenting the queer “Ballroom Culture” in New York City in the 1980s, this groundbreaking movie depicts Latinx and Black queer and transgender communities. It explores their struggles with multiple forms of discrimination regarding their race, class, gender, sexual identity long before concepts such as gender fluidity or intersectionality were discussed in society. Stay on after the screening and join the conversion and get-together with free drinks/nibbles! BCDSS Professor Julia Hillner will give a short introduction on the BCDSS’ thematic year with a research focus on Gender (and Intersectionality). Förderverein Filmkultur, the Queer-Referat (AStA Uni Bonn) and BCDSS Professor Pia Wiegmink will kickstart the post-screening conversation.

This round table event aims at interrogating the concept of the plantation and incorporate emergent theoretical insight on forms and practices of coerced labor, whether or not situated in the context of agricultural commodity or mineral extraction, which bears similarity to the plantation form. For some time scholars have pointed to the ways plantations in the Global South have been linked to the growth and expansion of modern capitalism at the cost of persistent underdevelopment. In the wake of the global turn, a linear narrative between the Caribbean and Northern Europe is being displaced by a far more decentered history. In turn, there is increasing emphasis on the afterlives of the plantation, from biopolitics to the racialization of labor. You are invited to share your research but are also more than welcome to listen in. If you want to join this round table on plantations and other forms of exploitative mass production, please get in touch with the organizers.

"Ecological Transition and the Dependency Trap: Challenging Old Approaches to Sovereignty". Sabrina Fernandes is a Brazilian sociologist and political economist with a PhD from Carleton University, Canada. She has researched transitions and ecology for over a decade, with expertise on Latin America. Formerly a postdoctoral fellow with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, with research appointments at the University of Vienna, Freie Universität Berlin, and University of Brasília, she has recently completed a fellowship with the Centre of Advanced Latin American Studies at the University of Guadalajara focused on the Anthropocene and the topic of sacrifice zones. She was also a contributing editor at Jacobin Magazine and chief editor of Jacobin Brazil. Her books and articles cover various fields and her publications can be found in English, Portuguese, Spanish and other languages. Currently, she is Head of Research at the Alameda Institute.

How did ancient gender discourse shape the roles and agency of women and men in mobility, and what factors influenced their ability to shape their own mobility and that of others during late antiquity? This lecture explores how gender has historically led to disparities and inequalities, particularly in the context of mobility studies. Traditionally, mobile women were often seen as mere companions, not decision-makers. Through late antique letters, we examine the gender discourse's impact on travel and mobility, shedding light on who held influence in these journeys and whether gender was the sole determinant of agency. These mobility stories provide valuable insights into gendered mobility in late antiquity.

What are the historical and socioeconomic factors that have contributed to the emergence and perpetuation of human trafficking and the commercial sex industry, and how do these factors connect to the late-medieval world and modern society? Today, poverty and corruption are frequently cited as major underlying causes of modern slavery and human trafficking. However, these issues are not exclusive to modern society; they have deep historical roots transcending borders, cultures, and economic systems. Human trafficking networks thrived in the late-medieval world, using tactics like kidnapping, abduction, familial pressure, and predatory employment to exploit vulnerable women and girls in various industries, including food service, textiles, and domestic work

Over the past five years, a project team based at the International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam has developed the ESTA Database structure in collaboration with international partners. The ESTA project has established a relational database model that is able to accommodate structural differences in source material and (existing) datasets relating to different parts of the Indian Ocean and maritime Asia region. Currently (2023), the database contains over 4,000 slave trade voyages across the maritime Asia region between roughly 1600 and 1850. The number of enslaved persons transported during these voyages range from at least 340,000–342,500 to 600,000 individuals. IISH and BCDSS are closely linked not only by their collaboration on this project but also by an international partnership. 13:30 Welcome 13:45 Launch of ESTA Database 14:30 Comments 15:00 Open Discussion and Q&A 16:30 Reception Registration required due to limited seating!

The conference will focus in the larger household organizations, including the private households of the military, political and economic elites, but also, for example, plantations, private companies, haciendas and estates. All can be considered as households where the head wields extensive if not absolute power over its members. All these households represented labour regimes which were based on an asymmetrically dependent work force consisting of servants, peasants, enslaved and other coerced labourers. We will address the following issues: How do we define the household? How do people enter and exit the household? Who belongs to the household? What is the division of labour? How does it function as a unit of production and/or economic unit? What are the mechanisms of control within the household? All in all, we would like to test the idea that “household” can be developed into an analytical tool to analyze strong asymmetrical dependencies in societies.

Monumentality in Southern Central America: Complexity, Inequality, Dependency? Perspectives on Human and other-than-human Relationships A Hybrid Collaborative Conference by the University of Bonn and Leiden University, supported through NWO-VICI grant (VI.C.221.093), Principal Investigator Dr. Alexander Geurds" Monumentality in archaeology serves as a descriptive and interpretative term. It characterizes notable objects and structures in landscapes and theorizes societal organization. This workshop explores monumentality in southern Central America through landscape transformations using enduring materials like stone. Monumentality, viewed as a product of human-nature relationships, doesn't signify social stratification but instead an effort to establish dependency on the natural world.

We are very pleased that Trevor Burnard and Damian Pargas have offered to present and discuss their new books with us! Trevor Burnard, Writing the History of Global Slavery (Cambridge Elements, Cambridge University Press), forthcoming (November 2023) Damian Pargas (ed., together with Juliane Schiel), The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery throughout History (Palgrave MacMillan), June 2023 The discussion is moderated by BCDSS postdoctoral researcher Viola Müller and is followed by a reception.

In his presentation, Jay Geller will attend to the ascription (and manufacture) of animality that enacted the subordination or marginalization of “the Jew” and the dominance of the Gentile and similarly functioned with regard to a racially-identified group, people of predominantly sub-Saharan African descent (blacks), and the corresponding race-identifying group, people of predominantly European descent (whites). Trigger warning for attending audiences and students: We would like to disclose that some audiences may find the verbal and visual content of this presentation triggering or offensive as it draws on antisemitic and racist representations. The material includes content that touches on: animal cruelty or animal death, violence and trauma connected to antisemitism, racism and racial conflict, antisemitic and racial slurs. We ask attending audiences who may feel triggered, overwhelmed or panicked by the content to take the necessary steps for their emotional safety.