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. In May 2025, we were awarded a further seven years of funding by the German Research Foundation. Hence, as of January 2026, we will be starting our SECOND FUNDING PERIOD (2026-2032).
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 Article by Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa9
We're thrilled to share that the research paper, "Afterlives of reclamation: coastal privatization, distanced dispossession, and more-than-human calcifications in Jakarta Bay" by BCDSS Postdoctoral Researcher Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa together with Muhammed Soufi Cahya Gemilang, As-Syahidah Al-Haq, Muthmainnah Rama and Annisa Ananda Sari, has just been published in the journal Maritime Studies.
© BCDSS
New Article by Michael Zeuske10
Congratulations to BCDSS Principal Investigator Michel Zeuske for his most recent article "El 'afro' de don Fernando Ortiz y los 'africanos' de Humboldt. 'Afro', 'África', Afro-Latinidad en la historia, memoria y herencia cultural de la América ibérica y el Caribe" ("The 'Afro' of Don Fernando Ortiz and the 'Africans' of Humboldt. 'Afro,' 'Africa,' Afro-Latinity in the history, memory, and cultural heritage of Iberian America and the Caribbean"), published in HiN - Alexander Von Humboldt Im Netz. Internationale Zeitschrift für Humboldt-Studien.
© BCDSS
Conference: Knowledge Dependencies and the Un/Making of Equitable Futures11
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?
With keynotes by Lisa Tilley (SOAS, University of London), AbdouMaliq Simone (University of Sheffield & University of Turin, online), and Margarita Gómez (Southern Voice).
© BCDSS
Out Now: DEPENDENT, Issue 11, Focusing on Archives12
We are pleased to announce that Issue 11 of our Cluster Magazine DEPENDENT on "Archives – Tracing Dependencies through Archival Research" is now available both online and in print. This edition explores archives not as passive repositories, but as dynamic, contested spaces where power, resistance, and memory intersect.
© BCDSS
International Silent Film Festival 2025 - Lecture by Anna May Wong13
As part of the supporting program of the International Silent Film Festival (7–17 August 2025) in Bonn, we warmly invite you to a lecture and Q&A by cultural scholar Yumin Li. In her talk, Li shares her research on the remarkable international film career of Show Life (German: "Song") actress Anna May Wong (1905–1961). Li highlights the importance of the Chinese-American actress as a pioneer in film history. As the first Hollywood star of Chinese heritage, Anna May Wong is today seen a symbol of self-empowerment.
© BCDSS
Research Grant for PhD Researcher Diego Schibelinski14
We are thrilled to announce that the research project, "Sailing a Hidden Atlantic: Slave Ship Crews during the Age of Abolition (1807–1867)," by our PhD researcher Diego Schibelinski has just been awarded a €6,000 grant, chosen from over 115 submissions! This funding will support his upcoming stay in London, where he’ll be diving into original materials at the National Archives, Kew.
His work explores the untold stories of the men who crewed slave ships, especially those voyaging to Brazil during the final decades of the trade. Rather than treating the ship just as a vessel, he sees it as a workplace and living community: a place where early capitalist labor regimes, including coerced and commodified labor, intersected in complex ways.
Using Labor History and Social History methods, he aims to recover who these crew members were, how they were treated under systems of illegality, and how they navigated life and labor under brutal conditions.
© BCDSS
New Publication by Diego Schibelinski15
Congratulations to PhD Researcher Diego Schibelinski, whose chapter on "Freedom and Slavery among Seafarers in Coastal Navigation (Santa Catarina, 19th Century)" (original: "Liberdade e escravidão entre os marítimos na navegação de cabotagem (Santa Catarina, século XIX")) has just been published in the book Gentes do mar: problemas, personagens e ambientes em estudo da historiografia brasileira, edited by J. Rodrigues.
© BCDSS
DEI Certificate Award to David Brandon Smith16
Congratulations to David Brandon Smith, who is the first one to complete the DEI Certificate offered by the BCDSS.
Events
Knowledge Dependencies and the Un/Making of Equitable Futures18
Tulpenfeld 6, 53113 Bonn
08:30 AM
Amid escalating geopolitical instability, authoritarian retrenchments, and the deepening securitisation of knowledge-making, this conference critically ...
Workshop Elite Women and Systems of Dependency in Late Antiquity19
Niebuhrstraße 5, 53113 ...
09:00 AM - 06:00 PM
The purpose of this workshop is to analyse and discuss the underexplored gendered dynamics of asymmetrical dependencies in which Late Antique elite women and ...
Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Ann R. David20
HYBRID event: On site ...
04:15 PM - 05:45 PM
How has Western morality reshaped Indian ideas of the body and performance?
This research explores how colonial and postcolonial ideologies impacted Indian ...
Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Christian Cwik21
HYBRID event: On site in ...
04:15 PM - 05:45 PM
Before transatlantic slavery, European colonial powers used contract workers. After Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807/08, they sought new markets, ...
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
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- https://www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/news-bcdss/new-article-by-rapti-siriwardane-de-zoysa
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