News and Events

On 15 May 2025, two exhibitions will open in the Global Heritage Lab, P26, at the University of Bonn. The exhibition "Dressing Resistance. Fashion and the Heritage of Mission" explores the question of how Christian missionisation has influenced fashion in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and how fashion designers and artists deal with this legacy today. It builds on an international conference with academics and cultural practitioners at the Global Heritage Lab. The exhibition "Enmeshed and Entwined - Fabrics of Dependency" by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) and the Bonn Center for Digital Humanities (BCDH) discusses the social entanglements and asymmetrical dependency relationships inherent in one of our oldest cultural assets. Opening hours of the exhibitions: 16.05.2025-12.10.2025, Wednesday-Sunday, 2-6 pm, Global Heritage Lab, Poststraße 26, 53111 Bonn

The 1874 painting 'The Acrobats' offers a glimpse into the lives of children performing in the circus 150 years ago. But does it also tell us something about the vulnerability of 'children in entertainment' and 'child performers' in general, both then and now? Find out more at the BCDSS station at this year's Uni Bonn Science Rallye!

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 transatlantic slavery continues to shape American life. Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' (1987) is often cited as central to this framework. Yet in 'A Mercy' (2008), Morrison imagines a world outside the constraints of this legacy, set in a time before slavery's full establishment. This lecture examines how Morrison's later novel engages with, or departs from, the afterlife of slavery, focusing on archival materials that reveal her role in shaping its publication. Professor Kinohi Nishikawa teaches African American Literature at Princeton University. He is the author of 'Street Players: Black Pulp Fiction and the Making of a Literary Underground' (University of Chicago Press, 2018), and co-editor of 'Sites of Memory: Toni Morrison and the Archive'. His work has appeared in 'ASAP/Journal', 'American Literary History', and 'Novel'.

What can contrasting approaches to animals tell us about human social organization? While early modern Europe was structured by nested hierarchies—dividing species, genders, classes, and races—many Indigenous societies in the Americas emphasized reciprocity over domination. Understanding egalitarianism and hierarchy among humans requires attention to their relationships with other species. Similarly, European animal husbandry and South American animal familiarization reflect deeper social patterns. This upcoming lecture, will explore how familiarization aligns with friendship and how husbandry mirrors dominion, situating Marcy Norton's work against both stagiest models that conflate hierarchy with complexity and neo-Rousseauan readings that oversimplify early modern Indigenous life.

Join us at the University of Bonn's Dies Academicus on 14 May, where BCDSS Fellows Evelyn Hu-De Hart, Christine Whyte, and Aleksander Paradziński will provide insights into their current research projects.

Amid escalating geopolitical instability, authoritarian retrenchments, and the deepening securitisation of knowledge-making, this conference critically examines how entrenched knowledge dependencies continue to shape practices of future-making—and how more equitable futures might still be (re)imagined. From the weaponisation of AI to the erosion of indigenous, activist, and academic freedoms, and the constraints of donor-driven agendas, we ask: How is knowledge circulation mediated? Under what conditions have alternative epistemic futures emerged—in the longue durée and within present formations?

How did jailing function in Ming China? This talk, based on Ying Zhan's book, rethinks the patrimonial bureaucratic system through the lens of vulnerability and dependence. It explores how bureaucrats experiences of jailing revealed the state's reliance on the patriarchal family, their complex relationships with lower classes, and how women used these crises to assert agency. By integrating comparative prison studies and family history, she will examine the social impact of jailing and the role of patriarchy in the Chinese bureaucratic empire.

What do we do with the wounds of a people and a nation? Like the doubting disciple who longed to touch Jesus's side, we must confront wounds, understanding their stories and the healing they signal. How does Black theology help us interpret the legacy of the Middle Passage, the GI Bill benefits denied to Black veterans, or the plight of shackled Black women inmates giving birth? Through Black theology and a womanist lens, this lecture explores why memory is crucial for healing and justice.

Walther Maradiegue and Sophia Labadi will discuss the sonic afterlives of heritagization in an indigenous Peruvian community, analyzing a Cañaris protest against the government's denial of their existence and land rights, arguing they challenge state recognition through performance and sound. The protest reenacts Tupac Amaru II’s 1781 execution alongside the state-recognized ‘Danza de los Guerreros Cascabeleros.’

How did racism come to be? Just as race is not a biological reality, racism is not inherent to human nature. It was invented and sustained through historical encounters, economies, and religious traditions—especially in North-South interactions. This presentation compares the history of racism in the U.S. to current developments, highlighting not just divide-and-conquer tactics but also "unite-and-conquer" strategies that reveal deeper complexities and potential solutions.

We are pleased to invite you to a keynote lecture by Indrani Chatterjee from the University of Virginia as part of the conference Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies: Perspectives from Asia, Past & Present. Chatterjee’s lecture, titled "Intersecting Subjections in South Asian Pasts," will begin with an introduction by Dr. Emma Kalb and will be followed by a reception at 18:00 CET. Please send an email to asiaconference@dependency.uni-bonn.de in order to register for the event.

Organized by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, this conference aims to address gaps in the study of slavery, bondage, coerced labor, and forced displacement across Asia. We invite scholars from various disciplines to contribute to a better understanding of the history, historiography, legacies, and current forms of these dependencies from an Asian perspective. We seek innovative historical case studies and contributions on topics like emic terminologies, memory, archival practices, and digital approaches. The conference will also explore the value and implications of adopting an "Asian perspective" in advancing scholarly dialogue and interdisciplinarity. Please send an email to asiaconference@dependency.uni-bonn.de in order to register for the event.

Tuli Mekondjo’s performance "Saara Omulaule/Black Saara" (2023) was improvised & inspired by Kari Miettinen’s book "On the Way to Whiteness – Christianization, Conflict, and Change in Colonial Owamboland, 1910-1965". The Finnish Sunday school song about “Black Saara – the little Negro girl” prompted a visceral response and an avenue of questioning for Mekondjo. She asks: “What made my ancestors (Aawambo people) convert to Christianity during the period 1910-1965?” The artwork evokes the need for ritual practices on living bodies as an attempt to awaken their souls from spiritual death in order to connect to our ancestors. This practice insists on the imperative performative action carried forward by ancestors, whose remains are still kept in the bondage of colonially created museums and missionary-made cemeteries. Mekondjo’s use of food, ritual and medicinal items to install the performance video are a way to connect ancestral spirits with the digital manifestation. PW: olukonda

Christian missionaries pressured women in colonial contact zones to dress more ‘appropriately’ according to European understandings of Christian modesty. At the same time, access to new material goods was one of the attractions to convert. New converts and missionaries actively negotiated the re-composition of local and European fashion styles and, related to this, new forms of body and gender norms and identities. The recomposed forms of dress evolved constantly, gradually acquiring the status of ‘traditional’ dress and becoming materialisations of cultural identity and belonging. Yet, against the backdrop of postcolonial critique and the latest decolonization movements worldwide, the perception of these on-going fashions is currently shifting and being questioned as part of colonial legacies. Given these historical processes, how can we rethink dress and fashion not only as cultural expressions but also as archives of lived experiences, contestations, and resistances?

"Nachorious: The Nach Gyal as Post Indenture Caribbean Feminist Jouvay Mas" This mas commemorates 180 years of the Indian ‘nautch girl’ – dancer, courtesan, tawa’if, devadasi, widow, bazaar woman, and rand or randi prostitute or sex worker – escaping British imperialism, dispossession, criminalization, evangelism, political punishment and impoverishment through the journey of indenture. Stereotyped as notoriously immoral and sexually loose, the indentured Indian woman was considered a threat to the system itself. Remembered through the character of the nach gyal, Nachorious, she still dances in the spirit of freedom and resistance. This Jouvay mas is made with indenture records from 1867, text from Mahadai Das poetry and scholarship on the nautch girl, a nach gyal figure whose spinning in the air will be a dance of life, and ghungroos to sonically memorialize this history as it became ours in the Caribbean. To register, please go to the link below.

Join us to the launch of "Versklavung im Atlantischen Raum: Orte des Gedenkens, Orte des Verschweigens in Frankreich und Spanien, Martinique und Kuba (Enslavement in the Atlantic World Sites of Remembrance, Sites of Silence in France and Spain, Martinique and Cuba)", the latest work by Ulrike Schmieder, professor at Leibniz University Hannover. This book explores the memories of Atlantic slavery in museums, public spaces, and historical sites in France and Spain, as well as in Martinique and Cuba. Using oral history methods, it investigates the topography of memory and the social context of remembrance sites.

Join us on April 8, 2025, for the next edition of the "WHO'S GOT THE POWER?" film and discussion series at Kino in der Brotfabrik, Bonn, in collaboration with Förderverein Filmkultur. We are thrilled to present The Illusion of Abundance, a powerful documentary by Matthieu Lietaert and Erika Gonzalez Ramirez. This gripping film tells the inspiring stories of Maxima Acuña (Peru), Berta Cáceres (Honduras), and Carolina (Brazil)—three courageous women who have risked everything to stand up against environmental destruction caused by profit-driven transnational corporations. Following the screening, engage in a thought-provoking discussion with BCDSS members Carla Jaimes Betancourt, Christian Mader and Aline Pereira from the Global Heritage Lab.

How did marginalized groups in rigid societies find paths to economic and social mobility? In the Roman Empire, lower-class individuals navigated established systems and forged their own routes to upward mobility, often through local professional and voluntary associations that linked them to the elite. This talk will examine epigraphic texts and Roman naming practices to explore how enslaved and freed individuals—excluded from traditional networks—leveraged their official organization, the familia publica, to engage in civic life, public events, and socioeconomic structures. This case study sheds light on asymmetrical dependency in Roman society and speaks to modern debates about the lasting impact of enslavement.

Join us on March 10th, 2025, from 14:00-16:00, for what is promising to be a powerful discussion on overcoming challenges related to gender identities within academia. The event aims to highlight the increasing presence of women in academia, demonstrate their strength and resilience in overcoming obstacles, and inspire younger academics who are embarking on their journeys in higher education. With Prof. Dr. Chioma Daisy Onyige and Prof. Dr. Natalie Joy, we have two senior academics at the BCDSS of international calibre, who are happy to share their personal experiences. They will be joined by two equally remarkable researchers and alumnae of the Center for International Development (ZEF): Dr. Rabia Chaudhry and Dr. Dennis Avilés Irahola. The discussion is moderated by PD Dr. Eva Youkhana (Senior Researcher, ZEF) and Cécile Jeblawei (Press & PR Manager, BCDSS). We call on representatives of all genders to take part. Men are particularly welcome to join the conversation!

Join us on April 29th when Theresa Wobbe, BCDSS alumna, will discuss the recently published book “Sklaverei, Freiheit und Arbeit: Soziohistorische Beiträge zur Rekonfiguration von Zwangsarbeit,” edited by herself, Léa Renard, and Marianne Braig. The contributions in this volume systematically draw on Orlando Patterson's sociology of slavery and the European ideal of freedom. Against this background, the authors argue for a socio-historical approach to capture the dynamics of the different dependencies of slavery and labour. Theresa Wobbe will be joined by Claudia Jarzewobski, BCDSS Professor for Early Modern History and Dependency Studies, and Eva Marie Lehner, BCDSS Postdoctoral Researcher. During the book discussion, Theresa Wobbe, Claudia Jarzebowski and Eva Marie Lehner will aim to shed light on the intertwining of labour, freedom, and slavery by examining labour relations based on violence and coercion.

Hybrid Workshop: Recent cataclysms prove glaringly the importance of continuously discussing and analyzing asymmetrical dependencies in premodern inner Eurasian connecting spaces north and east of the great mountain ranges, now in large parts claimed by Russia. The Research Network Premodern East Slavic Europe is committed to convene historians studying periods up to the long 18th century for scientific exchange and dialogue, to overcome the current marginalization of these fields in scientific and public perception. The conference invites to grapple with the concepts of dependency and (inter-)agency in these areas. It focuses, on the one hand, on exploring the approaches to asymmetrical social dependencies. On the other hand, crossconnections with fields of inquiry in political and (trans-) imperial history with a view to asymmetrical interethnic and resource dependencies as well as environmental history will be examined.

This talk explores the life of Crispina Peres, the most powerful trader in Cacheu, a key West African slave port, who was arrested by the Inquisition in 1665. Accused of using treatments from Senegambian healers, she became a target in a broader struggle over faith and power. Professor Green transports us to seventeenth-century Cacheu, revealing its daily life, culture, and the brutal realities of the expanding slave trade. Through Peres’s case, we uncover a globally connected world where women defied imperial patriarchy, challenging the narratives of European dominance. This talk has been organised by BCDSS fellow Ana Lucia Araujo.

What if enslaved and formerly enslaved literary workers played a crucial role in the composition of the Synoptic Gospels? This lecture challenges assumptions in New Testament scholarship’s “Synoptic Problem,” which explores the literary relationships between Matthew, Mark, and Luke. By uncovering the invisible labor of these uncredited collaborators, this article reimagines gospel writing and expands the boundaries of New Testament studies.

'Justice for the individual and society' Prof. Dr. Claudia Jarzebowski will take part in the panel discussion of the Godesberg Talks, alongside Dominik Pinsdorf, honorary judge at the Bonn District Court and holder of the Federal Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Jens Groß, drama director and Pastor Dr. Gianluca Carlin The demand for justice permeates our lives - from the schoolyard to inheritance. But what does justice mean when people's perceptions of it are so different? People have always fought for their rights and for what they consider to be fair. Every crisis raises the question of a fair society and the protection of our basic rights. The tension between individual feelings and social norms continues to shape our coexistence to this day. The event will be moderated by Dr. Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu

Limited seats available. Therefore, we operate a first come, first serve policy. This is an in person event. For more information please see the programme attached.

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 ideological, if not practical, transition away from coercive labor practices like private sector forced labor and slavery. The presentation will explore how it shaped labor practices in British East Africa—accelerating the progression toward the abolition in some ways while leaving loopholes for coercion under the guise of "tradition" and Indirect Rule.

Workshop "Slave Labor, Strong Asymmetric Dependency and Social Mobility in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Cuba 1820-1900" The workshop will focus on three areas (based on Research Area D "Work and Spatiality" of the BCDSS): 1) The work of slaves, former slaves as well as other people in strong asymmetrical dependencies in the world's largest sugar factories in the Cienfuegos region (before and after formal abolition); 2) Memory/Heritage of Slavery in three dimensions: people (Tomás Terry), current representation in museums, life histories and family histories in one of the sugar factories near Cienfuegos and in the town itself; 3) Historiography of slavery in Latin America and (possible) social mobility during an era of the great anti-colonial revolutions in Spanish-America and the Caribbean (1790-1902). - in person event only - Find the program below. To register, please click on the link under "Registration/Ticket".

Brazilian histories of indigenous and black slaveries provide a particularly rich source for understanding dependency categories. From the 16th century onwards, indigenous people were enslaved and subjected to forced labor and political subjugation. African slaves were brought to Brazil as early as 1530, with abolition only in 1888. During those centuries, Brazil received more than 4,000,000 Africans, over four times as many as any other American destination. In the second edition of the Conference “Current Trends in Slavery Studies in Brazil”, invited speakers will provide further characterizations of historical scholarship in Brazil, focusing on new areas of study: the relationship between Church and slavery, law and slavery, and science and slavery - including recent research on labor history, as well as a comparative approach of Brazilian and African (Angolan) history. Find the program below. To register, please click on the link under "Registration/Ticket".

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 coexisted, sometimes clashing with each other or with Kish in the north. Eventually, the region unified under the Sargonic dynasty and then the Third Dynasty of Ur. Despite these changes, the land-tenure system stayed stable due to environmental needs, particularly large-scale irrigation. Most arable land was controlled by rulers, governors, and temples, with individual land rights depending on one’s freedom and social status. Society had three main groups: free citizens, who owned land and were conscripted part-time; serflike individuals, who were free but conscripted full-time and rarely had land; and enslaved people, who were unfree and did not possess land. This presentation will explore the continuity and shifts in land ownership and liberty across the Early Dynastic, Sargonic, and Ur III periods.