Dies Academicus
Twice annually, we are reaching out to the academically interested public at the University of Bonn's Dies Academicus.
This day provides an opportunity to showcase the work of our researchers and allows the community to engage with our current research questions.
2023
Gender and Gender Ambiguity
Public lecture by Claudia Jarzebowski, Emma Kalb, and Eva Marie Lehner
"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," Simone de Beauvoir argues in her famous book The Second Sex, published in 1949. This has come as no surprise to historians since the 1990s, as women's and gender studies have identified numerous examples that argue against historically defined, biological gender roles. In this light, we ask what historically characterized a man or a woman and how were gender identities defined, for which there are long abbreviations today? What definitions and ideas of 'woman' and 'man' were there in the first place? And: Did this broad variance in gender identities also exist in historical and transcultural comparison? The perhaps surprising answer is: Of course! You will learn more about this with the help of three illustrative contributions on Europe and Asia by researchers from the Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies.
This short series of three presentations took place on 6 December 2023 and was held in German.
Slave Plantations
Public lecture by Michael Zeuske and Alexa Voss
Slave plantations for the cultivation of sugar and cotton as well as trade with slaves from Africa - hardly anything shapes the image of the slavery empires in the Americas more strongly.
Plantations, however, have accompanied the Atlantic slavery since 1500. Ever since Eduard von Lippmann's fundamental book on sugar (Geschichte des Zuckers, 1890), everyone in Europe assumed that plantations had existed during the "westward migration" of sugar (when sugar cane migrated from Papua via India and the Mediterranean to the Americas). In the Middle Ages, however, there were very few large latifundia with mills in Cyprus, otherwise sugar-cane was grown by free farmers on small fields rather than on great land pieces (plantations).
The "invention" of the plantation is twofold: in historical reality in Madeira (very few), the Canary Islands (few) and especially in São Tomé in the Gulf of Benin under the name of engenho/ ingenio or roça in the 16th century and under the general name of "plantation" (plantation/ estate) in Barbados in the 17th century.
How did the invention of the slave plantation come about, how did it develop, and what is its significance for us today?
This lecture took place on 24 May 2023 and was held in German.
The Exodus in the Old Testament. Liberation and/or Divine Slavery?
Public lecture by Ulrich Berges
The liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt is one of the most fundamental contents of the Old Testament Jewish credo and subsequently also of the New Testament Christian religion. More decisive than the historical core of truth or the hypothetical reconstruction of the same is the spiritual-historical dynamic of this narrative. In the justifications of some nation states such as South Africa, the USA, and Israel, the Exodus narrative plays a decisive role, as it does in liberation movements such as the South American "teología de la liberación."
An important aspect of the Old Testament narrative remains underexposed or even completely negated: The salvation from slavery does not lead to freedom and autonomous self-determination, but to the obligation to submit to the divine Torah. This ambiguity of salvation and submission can be seen in the Old Testament in the often overlooked metaphor of YHWH as the slave owner of his people. This lecture will explore this ambiguity, paying special attention to the slave laws in the Old Testament.
This lecture took place on 24 May 2023 and was held in German.
2022
Human Norms in the Anthropocene
Public lecture by Christoph Antweiler
Humans are making earth history. The Anthropocene refers to the geo-historical phase in which humanity has become a decisive factor shaping our geosphere. We all have an idea of what is meant by anthropogenic climate change, however Anthropocene is far more than this. It is also about species loss, soil change, and ocean change. The Anthropocene is a fact-based concept as well as a fundamental metaphor of planetary crisis. The concept derives from the geosciences and has subsequently gained a life of its own in the Humanities, where it often used as a buzzword. Critical voices from the humanities mostly revolve around normative and ethical issues. In our unequal world the question is who is responsible for catastrophic change. An anthropological view emphasizes the embeddedness of localized and often vulnerable communities within macro-scale and long-term environmental change.
Christoph Antweiler is Principal Investigator at the BCDSS and Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn. His related publication "Anthropologie im Anthropozän" is about to be published by Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, in May 2022.
This lecture took place on 18 May 2022.
2021
Announcement of the BCDSS MA Programs
The Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies hosted an Open Hour event on December 1st, 2021 to introduce two MA programs: "Dependency and Slavery Studies" and "Slavery Studies." During the event, an overview of the center and the MA programs was presented, along with examples from teaching staff. The event covered core research areas and methodological challenges of Dependency and Slavery Studies, researcher positionality/reflexivity in qualitative research, and the international and interdisciplinary approach of the MA programs. Attendees also had the opportunity to meet and speak with current MA students.