Events Archive

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 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.

Over the past five years, a project team based at the International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam has developed the ESTA Database structure in collaboration with international partners. The ESTA project has established a relational database model that is able to accommodate structural differences in source material and (existing) datasets relating to different parts of the Indian Ocean and maritime Asia region. Currently (2023), the database contains over 4,000 slave trade voyages across the maritime Asia region between roughly 1600 and 1850. The number of enslaved persons transported during these voyages range from at least 340,000–342,500 to 600,000 individuals. IISH and BCDSS are closely linked not only by their collaboration on this project but also by an international partnership. 13:30 Welcome 13:45 Launch of ESTA Database 14:30 Comments 15:00 Open Discussion and Q&A 16:30 Reception Registration required due to limited seating!

What are the historical and socioeconomic factors that have contributed to the emergence and perpetuation of human trafficking and the commercial sex industry, and how do these factors connect to the late-medieval world and modern society? Today, poverty and corruption are frequently cited as major underlying causes of modern slavery and human trafficking. However, these issues are not exclusive to modern society; they have deep historical roots transcending borders, cultures, and economic systems. Human trafficking networks thrived in the late-medieval world, using tactics like kidnapping, abduction, familial pressure, and predatory employment to exploit vulnerable women and girls in various industries, including food service, textiles, and domestic work

How did ancient gender discourse shape the roles and agency of women and men in mobility, and what factors influenced their ability to shape their own mobility and that of others during late antiquity? This lecture explores how gender has historically led to disparities and inequalities, particularly in the context of mobility studies. Traditionally, mobile women were often seen as mere companions, not decision-makers. Through late antique letters, we examine the gender discourse's impact on travel and mobility, shedding light on who held influence in these journeys and whether gender was the sole determinant of agency. These mobility stories provide valuable insights into gendered mobility in late antiquity.

"Ecological Transition and the Dependency Trap: Challenging Old Approaches to Sovereignty". Sabrina Fernandes is a Brazilian sociologist and political economist with a PhD from Carleton University, Canada. She has researched transitions and ecology for over a decade, with expertise on Latin America. Formerly a postdoctoral fellow with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, with research appointments at the University of Vienna, Freie Universität Berlin, and University of Brasília, she has recently completed a fellowship with the Centre of Advanced Latin American Studies at the University of Guadalajara focused on the Anthropocene and the topic of sacrifice zones. She was also a contributing editor at Jacobin Magazine and chief editor of Jacobin Brazil. Her books and articles cover various fields and her publications can be found in English, Portuguese, Spanish and other languages. Currently, she is Head of Research at the Alameda Institute.

This round table event aims at interrogating the concept of the plantation and incorporate emergent theoretical insight on forms and practices of coerced labor, whether or not situated in the context of agricultural commodity or mineral extraction, which bears similarity to the plantation form. For some time scholars have pointed to the ways plantations in the Global South have been linked to the growth and expansion of modern capitalism at the cost of persistent underdevelopment. In the wake of the global turn, a linear narrative between the Caribbean and Northern Europe is being displaced by a far more decentered history. In turn, there is increasing emphasis on the afterlives of the plantation, from biopolitics to the racialization of labor. You are invited to share your research but are also more than welcome to listen in. If you want to join this round table on plantations and other forms of exploitative mass production, please get in touch with the organizers.

Join the Facebook Live discussion and Q&A featuring the former BCDSS Bonn-Yale-Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Fellow Dr. Frank J. Cirillo and his new LSU Press book, "The Abolitionist Civil War: Immediatists and the Struggle to Transform the Union." The presentation will take place from 2–2:30pm, followed by a 10-minute Q&A.

How did Mary Astell question the apparent contradiction between the freedom of all men and the perceived enslavement of all women? This lecture reexamines women's economic status in early modern Europe, probing the link between their economic position and personal freedom. It highlights gender inequalities in work tasks, employment forms, and pay levels, presenting new evidence from England and comparing it to research on Sweden and Germany. The lecture critiques two theoretical frameworks—economic choice and feminist patriarchy—arguing their insufficiency. Instead, it explores the concept of women's freedom/unfreedom, drawing on ideas from the history of slavery, Carole Pateman, and Amartya Sen for a deeper understanding of economic gender inequality roots.

How did enslaved individuals in the Americas navigate the path to freedom? Focusing on Trujillo, Peru, this lecture contends that legal manumission alone did not guarantee freedom. Instead, it argues that enslaved individuals, particularly in 17th-century Trujillo, strategically combined debt and manumission agreements. Analyzing notarial records, the study shows how these individuals, following the examples of scholars like Kathryn Burns and others, used the public recording of debt to assert financial autonomy and reputational responsibility. Enslaved men positioned themselves as providers in patriarchal roles, while women used debt agreements to claim municipal subjectivity and honorable casta identities. This dual strategy was a conscious step toward freedom in a gendered context.

Join the book presentation and discussion with Dr. Jeroen Wijnendaele, postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Dr. Julia Hillner's project "Connecting Late Antiquities". This book delves into the significant political, social, economic, religious, and cultural changes that shaped a crucial region of the Roman world during the second quarter of the first millennium CE. Key features include its status as the first modern research volume on Late Antiquity's core region, a tight chronological focus on the transformation of Late Roman Italy, and a balanced exploration of topics like gender and environmental history. The volume reevaluates the pivotal transition in Late Antiquity, specifically the shift from the Roman Empire to autonomous kingdoms in Italy between 250 and 500 CE.

How does Augustine's Confessions reveal the often-overlooked lives of women, children, and the enslaved in fourth-century Roman Africa, shedding light on their agency amid societal constraints?

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.

Join us as historian Ana Lucia Araujo discusses her latest book, 'The Gift: Exploring the Influence of Prestigious Objects in the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism' in an engaging reading and discussion session. The book explores how objects of prestige contributed to cross-cultural exchanges between Africans and Europeans during the Atlantic slave trade. Drawing on a rich set of sources in French, English, and Portuguese, as well as artifacts housed in museums across Europe and the Americas, Ana Lucia Araujo illuminates how luxury objects impacted European–African relations, and how these economic, cultural, and social interactions paved the way for the European conquest and colonization of West Africa and West Central Africa.

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.

*****************UPDATE: Unfortunately this lecture had to be cancelled.********************************** Can postcolonial capitalism's global development reveal a standard, and what are its political implications? Explore this with scholars like Lowe, Roediger, and Chakrabarty, and then delve into Du Bois and Fanon's insights on the interplay of colonialism, race, and capitalism. Analyze the "black radical tradition" and its impact on understanding primitive capital accumulation. Conclude by questioning how Du Bois and Fanon's racial and colonial insights resonate in contemporary metropolitan centers.

How did Roman law perceive the distinction between freedom and enslavement? While initially stark, this division was permeable, allowing individuals to transition between statuses. This talk delves into the fluidity of this line, focusing on gratitude and obligation, particularly the concept of the "ungrateful freedperson." Despite cultural assumptions that freed individuals owed perpetual gratitude to their former masters, Roman law empowered patrons to charge ingratitude, leading to various penalties, even re-enslavement. The dynamics were most apparent in marriages between freedwomen and their patrons, shedding light on Roman notions of liberty and enslavement.

How did the term "bracero" evolve from identifying landless peasants in the late nineteenth century to representing Mexican contract workers during World War II? This lecture delves into the contested history of the Bracero Program, analyzing its coercive operations and poor conditions through primary sources, including those from the Archivo General de la Nación and the Bracero History Archive. Examining perspectives from workers, growers, unions, public opinion, and government representatives, the discussion questions the program's impact on dependency and asymmetrical relations.

BCDSS PhD Researcher Anas Ansar will lead a post-screening discussion on contemporary slavery / human trafficking at the WOKI Cinema Bonn, on 11 February, 17:30h. Every year, millions of people around the world, mainly women and girls, fall victim to modern-day human trafficking. Over a period of seven long years, Helen Simon researched and listened to people whose stories had previously gone unheard. This documentary by Helen Simon, Germany 2021, will be screened in the original languages (Afrikaans, Arabic, Czech, Dari, English, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Swahili) with German subtitles. Duration: 91 minutes Please note: cinema ticket fees apply. To book tickets in advance see the Woki website below. The discussion will be held in ENGLISH.

How did the life and work of Johannes Manissadjian, a successful scientist during the Armenian genocide, contribute to understanding the disappearance and dispersion of indigenous lives and knowledge? Using biographical methods and archival material, this lecture will highlight the impact of mass violence on Ottoman Armenians and emphasizes the agency of genocide survivors. Additionally, it explores Manissadjian's post-genocide scientific involvement and indigenous knowledge production in the context of Adorno's 'after Auschwitz' discussions.

How did court dwarfs navigate their unique social status in early modern German courts? Despite being perceived as privileged dependents, they served various roles such as entertainers, playmates, and symbols of princely status. This talk delves into aspects of their lives, exploring recruitment, legal standing, and opportunities for social advancement. Contrary to past associations with slaves and pets, a nuanced perspective emerges by analyzing their position within broader asymmetrical dependencies in early modern court societies. Adopting an intersectional approach reveals "small differences" between social groups.

What was the crucial and yet overlooked role that British women played in the Atlantic slave trade? While much focus has been on English men involved in the trade, this lecture reveals that women were integral to its various aspects. Drawing on diverse sources, "Women of the British Atlantic Slave Trade" demonstrates women's significant contributions, challenging the traditional narrative. If, as Eric Williams claimed, British slavery was pivotal to capitalism's rise, recognizing women's involvement unveils a more comprehensive understanding of the global economic system at play

How does a new digital humanities project, born from research on the voices of the enslaved in the French Atlantic world, offer insight? Set to launch in April 2024, this project delves into the testimonies permitted by French law, revealing autobiographical narratives captured in court records. Despite challenges, this archive provides invaluable glimpses into the lives and thoughts of the marginalized. By employing a digital humanities approach, we can explore both the methodological hurdles and the profound significance of these narratives. This presentation will spotlight key individuals and themes, such as Jannot (1743), Marguerite (1764), Jeanot (1764), and Babette (1765), shedding light on their struggles and their demand for recognition of their humanity.

How did an alleged sodomy case in 1648 on an English East India Company ship shape social dynamics and attitudes towards homosexuality? Examining the events and aftermath, this Lecture sheds light on relations among crewmembers, attitudes towards homosexual acts, and the company's interaction with the Mughal Empire.

How did Jainism rise and decline in Karnataka? Originating in East India in the sixth century BCE, Jainism reached Karnataka by the second century CE. By the fifth century CE, it gained supremacy, peaking from the eighth to eleventh centuries CE. However, by the twelfth century, its influence rapidly diminished, leading to severe dependency. This presentation explores the reasons for both the rise and fall, spanning religious, social, political, and economic factors

How did Islamic law change the status of slave mothers and their children? While granting certain protections, such as freedom upon the owner's death and inheritance rights for their children, the integration of slave women into families as sexual partners wasn't always smooth. This talk examines the implications of slave concubinage on family dynamics, as depicted in medieval Arabic literature, particularly in three erotic manuals spanning from the tenth to the early fourteenth centuries. These texts grapple with justifying and defending sexual slavery while navigating the delicate balance between satisfying desires and maintaining family harmony.

How did late antique households influence wider social organization and the Roman state? They served as microcosms of society, shaping social hierarchies and relationships. Within these spaces, residents negotiated various dynamics, including those between free and slave, parent and child, and citizen and foreigner. The vulnerability of slaves to sexual exploitation and the politics of desire significantly influenced daily interactions, impacting the social status of all involved. This paper examines these dynamics and their impact on late Roman attitudes during a transformative era often dubbed the 'Age of Anxiety.'

How did late Romans experience disasters and military conflicts? Many scholars argue that these events contributed to the Empire's decline. However, this presentation offers a different perspective, focusing on how disasters affected individuals and their relationships. How did disasters impact social networks and force people into new dependencies? The talk will explore these questions and suggest that outcomes for survivors were often influenced by emerging structures of dependency, such as the ransom market.

The history of slavery undergoes a massive paradigm shift in recent times. One aspect is how Slavery and Dependency Studies reconceptualize the history of enslavement and human trafficking against the background of strong asymmetrical dependency, such as Leibeigenschaft and serfdom. Comparative perspectives have therefore gained much significance and contributed enormously to the field. At the same time, global history has reached its preliminary peak - time to bring these two strands together as oftentimes scholars do both: case studies and global history. With Paulin Ismard and Benedetta Rossi, the bpb and the BCDSS welcome two of the most outstanding scholars both in the world history of slavery and dependency and comparative history. With Stephan Conermann and Joseph Biggerstaff we will host an intergenerational roundtable, moderated by Claudia Jarzebowski. Please register by June 2, 2024, using the link below.

Workshop: Exploring the Atlantic and Asian Dutch Empire and its Archives: actor-centered and gender approaches (17th-19th Century) In the past years, the lives of colonized people have been studied increasingly. Individual stories of enslaved, freed and other marginalized men and women were documented in colonial archives, often because they stepped out of line at a certain moment. How to find a more balanced approach when trying to unearth the lives of colonized people, while being at the mercy of colonial archives? How to best account for the manifold differences between men and women living in colonial establishments, based among others on gender, race, class, religion, age and social position? In this workshop Ph.D. and postdoctoral researchers will explore the Atlantic and Asian Dutch Empire and its archives (17th-19th century) from different levels and from various perspectives. Please register by June 14, via Jan Hörber (events@dependency.uni-bonn.de)

Workshop "How to Understand Colonial History in the Americas through the Category of Dependency? Challenges, Problems, and Perspectives" This interdisciplinary workshop will discuss the applicability of the category of (asymmetrical) dependency to analyzing the colonial period in the Americas. The period is appropriate for this purpose because the relations of dependency rooted in the pre-colonial period and those that emerged during the colonial one overlap in this “hinge period.” Hence, these dependencies laid the ground for the economic, social, and political relations that emerged after the independence of the Latin American countries. From this perspective, we ask ourselves about the current state of research on this topic in Germany and Latin America. Please note, that the workshop will be held in Spanish. Due to limited seating, please REGISTER by June 28th: events@dependency.uni-bonn.de See full program below.

Conference: "Children, Dependency, and Emotions in the Early Modern World, 1500-1800: Archival and Visual Narratives" Throughout history children have been subjected to violence, coercion, forced labor and separation. Children also developed strategies to cope with their oftentimes deplorable living conditions. This conference is interested in the archival, visual, and material traces some of these children have left - aiming at reconstructing social and emotional worlds of children in early modern global history. For the full program, see the link below.

In recent times, research has increasingly focused on the previously often neglected phenomena of transition from violence and war to peacemaking and peace consolidation. The thematic contexts and spatial and chronological contexts of such studies are extremely diverse, as are the terms typically used: Gray areas between peace and war, transformation processes, intermediate worlds, transitions, simultaneity phenomena, reconstruction and post-war periods, Cold War/Cold Peace, "neither/nor", "both/and" - all these paraphrases aim to question the premises of Cicero's classic quote "inter bellum et pacem medium nihil sit" and at the same time accentuate the ideal-typical construct character of "war" and "peace". The aim of the conference is to examine the various transitions from violence/war to peacemaking/consolidation across epochs in a specific area, namely the Rhenish region.

We cordially invite you to join us for a Special Issue Lunch Talk with the editors Pia Wiegmink and Jutta Wimmler and authors of the Special Issue “Beyond Slavery and Freedom,” published a few weeks ago in the Journal of Global Slavery. It also features work by Sinah Kloß, Ricardo Márquez García, Christian Schwermann, Elena Smolarz & Julia Winnebeck. The Special Issue demonstrates the variety of research done at the cluster. This will be an informal event to discuss openly the content of the contributions, the different approaches to the topic, and the overall framing and we are particularly interested in hearing how other BCDSS researchers rethink the binary slavery/freedom in their work. The introduction to the Special Issue is freely available, but you can also access the individual contributions from within the university network/via VPN. https://brill.com/view/journals/jgs/9/1-2/jgs.9.issue-1-2.xml

Please note: registration for both parts of the event is required by 22 October (link below) as there is only limited space! Join us for the opening of our BCDSS Exhibition "Verstrickt und Verwoben: Texturen der Abhängigkeit"/"Enmeshed and Entwined: Fabrics of Dependency" at the Bonn University and State Library (ULB). The Launch is followed by a Semester Kick-off Reception at the BCDSS (Niebuhrstr. 5) at 19:30. Everyone is welcome! Fabrics play a key role in the history of dependency. The production, distribution and use of textiles and their raw materials had and still has a huge impact on societies around the globe. In our digital exhibition, we reveal the underlying power structures that are responsible for the manifold "strong asymmetrical dependencies" related to fabrics. By drawing on more than 30 exhibits from around the world, our "story patches" will take you on a journey across time, regions and cultures, from the earliest settlements to today’s consumer societies.

This roundtable convenes experts from ZEF/Global Heritage Lab, BICC and the BCDSS to discuss the historical and contemporary impacts of extractivism across a range of global contexts and natural resources. Central questions to be discussed will entail the violent colonial origins of resource extraction, current conflicts and consequences for local communities, and possible ways into the future. Framed in a larger context of environmental (in)justice, and attending to matters of ethics, sustainability and dependency, the discussants will bring to the table their respective disciplinary backgrounds, spanning governance and conflict studies, development politics, the environmental humanities and dependency studies.

With Henriette Rødland, Sean Kelley and Bahar Bayraktaroglu. Marking the INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY (2 December), the three researchers will share interesting insights into their projects and discuss slavery and abolition from a global perspective. The presentations will be moderated by David B. Smith. Henriette Rødland: “The rise and fall of slavery on the Swahili coast of East Africa” Sean Kelley: "The Ambiguities of US Slave Trade Abolition" Bahar Bayraktaroglu: “The Demise of Slavery in the Ottoman Empire”

Exhibition curator Beatrix Ihde-Hoffmann will give a short introduction to the current BCDSS exhibition. The exhibition presents many different and varied stories that we have put together – just like a patchwork quilt that has been stitched together from many patches of different origins, patterns and textures. The stories tell of unequal – asymmetrical – dependencies and of resistance to them, by looking at the production, use and distribution of textiles and their raw materials. Please note that the presentation will be held in German.

...The Influence of Intersectional Identities, Gendered Challenges and ‘Tropes of Hardship’ on Ethnographic Research. Institutional training seldom prepares early-career researchers and students sufficiently for the challenges ethnographers may face during empirical research. Too little attention is paid to the significance of the researchers’ and the interlocutors’ intersectional identities and the impact they have on the research process. Therefore, in this talk I focus on the specific challenges of ethnographic research as a gendered and embodied practice. I address the dynamic power relations between ethnographers, interlocutors and gatekeepers during anthropological fieldwork and ethnographic interviews. I illustrate how gendered, racialized and nationalized bodies and identities influence fieldwork experience, relationships and the collection and interpretation of research data.

Congratulations to Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. James Harland for his new article in the upcoming book "Cremation in the Early Middle Ages," edited by Femke Lippok and Howard Williams. We invite you to join the online launch, during which Dr. Harland will give a brief speech, on 12 December, 18:15 CET. On the book: When, where, how and why did early medieval people cremate their dead? The brand-new edited collection published with Sidestone – "Cremation in the Early Middle Ages" – draws together the latest research and thinking on early medieval cremation practices. The book takes you on a journey through 19 chapters exploring cremation practices from the fifth to the eleventh centuries CE in Fennoscandia, the UK and Ireland, Frisia, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, and France. In this way, the book aims to be a central resource for anyone interested in early medieval cremations, or indeed funerary practices more generally.