New Publication "Dependent"
Companion volume to the BCDSS exhibition
Discovery Grant Award
Congratulations to Prof. Dr. Pia Wiegmink!
World of Roman Bonn
Dependencies and Opportunities 2000 years ago
Impressions of 2024
New Publication "Dependent"
Discovery Grant Award
World of Roman Bonn
Impressions of 2024

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

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

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
New co-edited Special Issue on 'Indentured Bodies/Embodiments of Indenture'
Congratulations to Sinah Kloß and Jennifer Leetsch, researchers at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), on their co-edited special issue on indentureship and embodiment in the Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies
BCDSS Hoodies & T-Shirts are here!
You can now try them on at Niebuhrstraße.
New Publication "Dependent: Global Perspectives on the History of Resources and Slavery"
In the volume, edited by Martin Bentz, Nikolai Grube and Patrick Zeidler, seven of our cluster members illuminate "strong asymmetrical dependencies" related to fabrics from a cross-cultural and diachronic perspective. However, they also go beyond the resource of textile and examine the diverse spectrum of human dependency relationships in connection with basic foodstuffs and luxury foods. It is the companion volume to the BCDSS exhibition.
Congratulations to Prof. Dr. Pia Wiegmink!
We are very happy to announce that BCDSS Prof. Dr. Pia Wiegmink is part of a joint research project entitled „Unfreedom, Voices, Redress: Plantation Cultures of the Western Pacific“ that has been granted 882,000 AUSD by the Australian Research Council! Chief Investigators of the four-year project are Professor Penny Edmonds, of Flinders University, and Professor Deirdre Coleman, of University of Melbourne.  Professor Dr. Pia Wiegmink is Partner Investigator alongside Dr. Margaret Mishra (University of the South Pacific), Dr. Oliver Lueb (Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne), and Ms Imelda Miller (Queensland Museum).
New Publication by Michael Zeuske
Prof. Dr. Michael Zeuske presents the history of enslaved people in Africa, the Atlantic, and the Americas, with a focus on Latin America and the early capitalist-slave societies such as Cuba, Brazil, and the United States, which were based on what is now known as "second slavery." It examines how this history connects to the emergence of the term "Afro," highlighting that, although often considered an American creation, it is, in fact, of Cuban origin.

Events
Fourth Annual Meeting of the Premodern East Slavic Europe Network
Niebuhrstraße 5 and ...
09:00 AM
Hybrid Workshop: Recent cataclysms prove glaringly the importance of continuously discussing and analyzing asymmetrical dependencies in premodern inner ...
Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Jeremiah Coogan
HYBRID event: On site ...
04:15 PM - 05:45 PM
What if enslaved and formerly enslaved literary workers played a crucial role in the composition of the Synoptic Gospels? This lecture challenges assumptions ...
Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies: Perspectives from Asia
University of Bonn
Whole Day
Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies: Perspectives from Asia, Past & Present This event addresses the underrepresentation of Asia in labor and slavery studies ...
Guest Lecture with Toby Green
Festsaal at the ...
04:00 PM - 06:30 PM
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. ...

Contact Us 

Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS)

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Managing Director: Jeannine Bischoff
Email: dependency@uni-bonn.de

Press and PR Manager: Cécile Jeblawei
Email: pr@dependency.uni-bonn.de

Address

University of Bonn
Niebuhrstraße 5
53113 Bonn  

BCDSS Fellowship Programs

Address

University of Bonn
Heussallee 18–24
53113 Bonn

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