Call for Applications
International Conference — Bonn, June 24–26, 2026
Organized by Veruschka Wagner and Stephan Conermann together with the Ottoman Slavery Working Group, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), University of Bonn
The Ottoman Slavery Working Group at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) invites applications for the international conference "Ottoman Slaveries and Typologies of Unfreedom."
Concept and Aim
Slavery in the Ottoman Empire was never a singular or uniform institution. Enslaved people—whose positions, duties, and social value varied greatly—were integral to the empire’s domestic, military, and economic systems. These differences reveal that it is more accurate to speak of Ottoman slaveries in the plural, rather than of a single, fixed form of bondage.
This plurality can be most productively understood through the lens of agency. The conference will explore how different configurations of slavery and dependency shaped, enabled, or constrained the agency of enslaved individuals. Rather than viewing agency as the antithesis of domination, we aim to examine it as a relational and context-dependent capacity—one that emerged within, and was shaped by, the very structures of asymmetrical dependency that defined Ottoman slaveries.
Central questions will include:
- Can a typology of Ottoman slaveries be developed through a comparative study of enslaved people’s capacities to act?
- How did different forms of slavery—domestic, military, agricultural, administrative, or sexual—condition the scope of agency and mobility?
- In what ways did gender, religion, or conversion alter hierarchies of power and dependency?
- How did agency manifest in negotiation, adaptation, resistance, or survival—both during enslavement and after manumission?
By foregrounding the lived experiences and everyday practices of enslaved individuals, this conference seeks to rethink slavery not as a static institution but as a field of shifting dependencies in which power and agency were continuously redefined. We welcome contributions that draw on diverse sources—such as court records, archival materials, travelogues, or correspondences—and that engage with comparative or theoretical debates on unfreedom, dependency, and interagency.
About the Working Group
For more information about the Ottoman Slavery Working Group, please visit:
Working Group: Ottoman Slavery
Participants and Submissions
We particularly invite early-career researchers (PhD candidates, postdoctoral scholars, and recent graduates) whose work addresses slavery, dependency, and agency in and around the Ottoman Empire. Interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives are especially encouraged.
Please submit:
An abstract of max. 300 words and a short bio (max. 100 words) by December 30, 2025, to vwagner1@uni-bonn.de.
Applicants will be notified by January 30, 2026.
The conference will take place in Bonn, Germany, on June 24–26, 2026.