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.

Outlook and Information on Phase 2 (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.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Publications

Videos & Recordings

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.

BCDSS Blog

How to avoid animal species becoming extinct twice?
Jun 02, 2025
The Weight of Water and the Cost of Labour: Reconstructing the Past with Roman Concrete
May 05, 2025
More…

News

DSS Vol. 20 - New Publication by Ulrich Berges

The book Justice and Righteousness in the Old Testament: Reflecting on Slavery in the Hebrew Bible by BCDSS PI Prof. Dr. Ulrich Berges is now available through open access as part of the BCDSS Book Series 'Dependency and Slavery Studies' (DSS).

"The Devil and Colonialism" - New Publication by Jutta Wimmler

Congratulations to Research Group Leader Dr. Jutta Wimmler, whose article "The Devil and Colonialism" was just published in the The Routledge History of the Devil in the Western Tradition.

New Publication: Special Issue of 'Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History', edited by V. Bartash and A. Pottorf

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.

New Article by Christian Mader

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).

New Podcast with Christian Mader

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.

New Publication by Martin Schermaier, Julia Winnebeck, and Matthias Becher

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.

Monday, 2 June 2025, 19:00 at Kino in der Brotfabrik, Bonn

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 Secures Additional Seven Years of Funding as Cluster of Excellence

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.

All News Items

Events

Tuesday Jun 17, 2025 until Jun 18, 2025

Interdisciplinary Workshop: Entangled Lives

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 ...

Tuesday Jun 17, 2025

Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Marcy Norton

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. ...

Tuesday Jun 17, 2025

Juneteenth Lecture with Kinohi Nishikawa

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 ...

Monday Jun 30, 2025

Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Crystal Eddins

Hybrid event (Niebuhrstr....

04:15 PM - 05:45 PM

How did issues of intimacy, like sexuality, pregnancy, coercion, and family, shaped enslaved women’s decisions to resist during slave rebellions in the ...

Thursday Sep 18, 2025 until Sep 19, 2025

Knowledge Dependencies and the Un/Making of Equitable Futures

Tulpenfeld 6, 53113 Bonn

Whole Day

Amid escalating geopolitical instability, authoritarian retrenchments, and the deepening securitisation of knowledge-making, this conference critically ...

Monday Oct 20, 2025

Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Ann R. David

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 ...

All Events

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Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS)

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