The Heinz Heinen Kolleg brings together excellent international scholars whose research focuses on different forms of strong asymmetrical dependency and slavery in all historical periods before the 20th century, and all cultural contexts. It is part of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) that hosts the Cluster of Excellence "Beyond Slavery and Freedom. Asymmetric Dependencies in Pre-modern Societies" funded by the German Excellence Strategy.
The BCDSS aims to overcome the concept of "slavery versus freedom" established as a binary. We look at forms of durable and strong asymmetrical dependencies from various (temporal, spatial, disciplinary) angles.