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).

Outlook & Information (2026–2032)

Vacancies / Calls (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

BILGI - BONN History Graduate Conference 9-10 May 2025
Jul 07, 2025
How to avoid animal species becoming extinct twice?
Jun 02, 2025
More…

News

New Publication: Special Issue of 'Body and Society' edited by Sinah Kloß and Antonia Villinger

Congratulations to BCDSS Research Group Leader Dr. Sinah Kloß and Antonia Villinger (Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg), on editing the special issue of the journal Body and Society titled 'Pregnant Bodies: Embodied Pregnancy.'

New Article by Research Group Leader Sinah Kloß

We would like to draw your attention to the new article, "Tattoos and Sonic Imitation: Mantras, Body Tuning and Tattooing as Sounding," by BCDSS Research Group Leader Dr. Sinah Kloß published in Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art, and Belief.

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.

All News Items

Events

Monday Jul 14, 2025

Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Phil Withington

HYBRID event: On site in ...

04:15 PM - 05:45 PM

This lecture uses a range of printed materials and analytical methods to address the vocabulary of slavery in England during the long seventeenth century and ...

Thursday Jul 24, 2025 until Jul 25, 2025

Workshop Dependency and Embodied Experience

Niebuhrstr. 5, 53113 Bonn

10:00 AM

This interdisciplinary workshop on body history and experiences explores strong asymmetrical dependencies from the perspective of the body and experience. 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

Contact Us

Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS)

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