Events - Conference/Workshop
Whose knowledge is recognized, and what voices are heard within Caribbean studies? This conference focuses on how knowledge is produced, shared, and received, and on what changes are needed to ensure that power is shared, while epistemic differences are included and valued.
Competing Memories: The Politics of Remembering Enslavement, Emancipation and Indentureship in the Caribbean
"Global Voyages, Local Sites: The Long Shadow of Atlantic Slavery in the Anglo-American and German Pacific" workshop brings together renowned scholars working in the fields of Slavery Studies, Labor Studies, Colonialism and Museum Studies. It explores the legacies of Atlantic slavery through the British Empire’s movement of people, money, and expertise from the Caribbean to Queensland, the American movement west to the islands of Samoa, and how these processes interacted with German colonial endeavors in the Pacific. It intends to form a framework with which to expand the disciplinary boundaries of slavery studies and rethink the legacies and impacts of U.S. and Caribbean practices of slaving and processes of racialization that emerged in the context of imperial endeavors in the Pacific. In addition to historians’ approaches, we would also like to address how the topics and discourses outlined above impact contemporary attempts of decolonizing museums and collections.
Join the workshop "Beyond Slavery and Freedom in the Ancient Near East", organized by BCDSS Postdoctoral Researcher Vitali Bartash at the 68th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, University of Leiden. The workshop addresses the social groups in the ancient Near East that were not slaves but whose freedom was strongly restricted by law, economic conditions, patronage, religious institutions and other factors. Contributions highlight the differences between these groups from citizens with full rights, on the one hand, and from slaves, on the other. Why, how, and on whom were they strongly dependent? Finally, the papers find out if there were ways out of these dependent statuses.
In the early modern period, forced labour went hand in hand with imprisonment and had an inherent punitive logic: the publicly performed labour of prisoners was supposed to have a deterrent effect and act preventively, similar to rituals of corporal punishment. In the context of the centralisation of absolutist power for the "state of common good", a complementary view of the work of imprisoned delinquents emerged: it had to be increasingly conveyed as a means of human improvement. The police objectives were combined with the reformatory purposes. Work became the antithesis of idleness, and in the penitentiaries of Europe the convicts not only had to be made to work for fiscal purposes, but the poor also had to be (re)educated to work. The planned workshop brings together case studies from different cultural contexts and will ask about the genealogy of the discourse of labour and the possible transfers and retransfers of the concept of penal labour as a means of correction.
The workshop is organized by the German-Australian DAAD-UA collaborative project "Child Slaveries in the Early Modern World: Gender, Trauma, and Trafficking in Transcultural Perspectives (1500-1800)" of early career researchers from the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, and the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies and hosted by the BCDSS History and Theory Working Group. We explore historical dimensions of child slavery, dependency, gender and emotions in multiple world regions, with research grounded in archival and visual narratives.
Monumentality in Southern Central America: Complexity, Inequality, Dependency? Perspectives on Human and other-than-human Relationships A Hybrid Collaborative Conference by the University of Bonn and Leiden University, supported through NWO-VICI grant (VI.C.221.093), Principal Investigator Dr. Alexander Geurds" Monumentality in archaeology serves as a descriptive and interpretative term. It characterizes notable objects and structures in landscapes and theorizes societal organization. This workshop explores monumentality in southern Central America through landscape transformations using enduring materials like stone. Monumentality, viewed as a product of human-nature relationships, doesn't signify social stratification but instead an effort to establish dependency on the natural world.
The International Workshop on Romani Asymmetrical Dependencies is dedicated to exploring asymmetrical relations and understanding co-dependencies between Romani populations and host societies within European socio-political context, in the long period between the 14th century and present day. In utilizing the formula ‘Romani Asymmetrical Dependencies’, the workshop intends to examine (in)effective mechanisms of social incorporation of the Roma, with a special interest and attention to the assessment and interpretation of their influence in local cultures as well as their role in the formation of collective identities (social, religious, political, national). Key topics of this event concern the societal, occupational and symbolic circumstances which have shaped the experiences of one of the oldest transnational minorities in the continent.
Everyone is coardially invited to join our workshop, "Child Slaveries in the Early Modern World, 1500-1800," on Wednesday, October 18, from 12:00-17:00 (CET). The workshop is organized by the German-Australian DAAD-UA collaborative project "Child Slaveries in the Early Modern World: Gender, Trauma, and Trafficking in Transcultural Perspectives (1500-1800)" of early career researchers from the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, and the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies and hosted by the BCDSS History and Theory Working Group. We explore historical dimensions of child slavery, dependency, gender and emotions in multiple world regions, with research grounded in archival and visual narratives.
The conference will focus in the larger household organizations, including the private households of the military, political and economic elites, but also, for example, plantations, private companies, haciendas and estates. All can be considered as households where the head wields extensive if not absolute power over its members. All these households represented labour regimes which were based on an asymmetrically dependent work force consisting of servants, peasants, enslaved and other coerced labourers. We will address the following issues: How do we define the household? How do people enter and exit the household? Who belongs to the household? What is the division of labour? How does it function as a unit of production and/or economic unit? What are the mechanisms of control within the household? All in all, we would like to test the idea that “household” can be developed into an analytical tool to analyze strong asymmetrical dependencies in societies.
Machtausübung geschieht in Judentum und Christentum auf vielfältige Weise, ohne dass dabei auf rohe Gewalt zurückgegriffen wird. Über Jahrhunderte hinweg haben sich in beiden Religionen Hierarchien und asymmetrische Abhängigkeiten entwickelt, die teilweise sogar als konstitutiv für jüdische und christliche Gemeinschaften angesehen werden. Dabei wurden Prozesse etabliert, um Autorität zu sichern und die Ausübung, Verteilung und Weitergabe von „sanfter“ Macht zu regeln. Bei dieser Tagung steht die Frage im Mittelpunkt, wie sich diese Formen von Autorität und Macht in unterschiedlicher Weise institutionell manifestieren, beispielsweise in Ritualen, disziplinären Systemen oder synodalen Entscheidungen. Darüber hinaus fragen wir auch danach, wie religiöse Autoritätspersonen (Lehrende, Amtsträger und - trägerinnen) die Anhänger der jeweiligen Religion auch individuell, zum Beispiel mittels Charisma, Bildung und Tradition, beeinflusst und auch manipuliert haben.
As co-organizers, we are delighted to announce an upcoming workshop that delves into the intricate theme of "Forms of Freedom during Slavery in Latin America: History, Approaches, and Archives." The workshop is a collaboration between the BCDSS and former BCDSS fellow Prof. Dr. Carolina González. This event brings together historians to share their experiences and research inquiries on the enslavement of people of African and indigenous origin in Latin America from the 17th to the 19th centuries, with a focus on various forms of freedom in different contexts. The discussion will be structured around three themes: History, Approaches, and Archives.
"Hermeneutics of Restitution, Reparation, and Redress: The Case of Cultural Property" This conference aims to explore the – seminal – question of how to react adequately to the damages from dependency relations, in order to repair and overcome them, with a view to a better, post-dependency future, if not reconciliation. If you're interested, please register by March 30, via email to Jan Hörber (events@dependency.uni-bonn.de)
This workshop is part of a two-day event series jointly organized by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) and the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn. The "Islamic Feminisms and Dependency" workshop delves into the intersection of gender, war, and modern Arabic literature, with a focus on Islamic feminism and highlights Prof. Cooke's exploration of "multiple critique" within Islamic feminism, relevant to asymmetrical dependency research. Pre-circulated readings include excerpts from "Women Claim Islam" and an article on "Hijab Activism." Discussions and a coffee break are included in the program. In essence, the workshop initiates discussions on the relationship between Islamic feminist thought, intersectionality, and asymmetrical dependency research.
The BCDSS invites all interested to this Bilingual International Colloquium. Participants will discuss the multiple ways in which written, visual, audiovisual archives and, of course, art that emanate from the contexts of imperial, slave and colonial expansion, can not only be the object of postcolonial litigation, both academically and politically, but they are also, paradoxically, devices for the construction of new dialogues between academia, society and the State and its public policies in order to imagine actions built collectively with communities, public and private sectors, through the use of archives as exceptional primary sources for the study of African, African American, Latin American, Asian and African societies even European ones for the sake of their signification, appreciation and dissemination.
During this event, we would like to explore the nature and significance of manumission of enslaved people from a global perspective. Drawing on a variety of sources, especially judicial and notarial ones, we will gain insights into the different types of manumission, their procedures, and outcomes. The main question we are interested in and therefore want to focus on is not only the act of manumission itself, but also the period after manumission. What were the conditions and steps for manumission? What did emancipation really mean? What happened to the slaves after manumission? Did manumission lead to freedom or to a different kind of relationship of dependence? How did the relationship between slaves and slave owners develop after the manumission? What role did manumission play in social life and in the shaping of society? What information can we find in our sources on these aspects? What epistemological and methodological approaches do we use to overcome silences in the records?
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.
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.
Hybrid Workshop: What can we learn by rethinking plantations beyond the Atlantic world? From the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, plantations in the Caribbean, South America, and the U.S. South shaped the Atlantic economy and influenced extractive systems worldwide. While the fall of Caribbean slave-based regimes and their links to modern commodity frontiers are well known, this workshop revisits the origins, structures, and global implications of plantation systems. In this coming hybrid workshop, early-career scholars will join established researchers in moderated panel discussions designed to spark productive, in-depth dialogue.
"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.