Welcome to the Cluster of Excellence at the
Bonn Center for Dependency & Slavery Studies
"Beyond Slavery and Freedom:
Asymmetrical Dependencies in Pre-Modern Societies"
We are a research cluster within the framework of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.
We investigate profound social dependencies such as slavery, serfdom, debt bondage, and other forms of permanent dependency across epochs, regions and cultures.
Our focus lies "beyond slavery and freedom", i.e. we aim to overcome the binary opposition of "free" and "unfree".
Instead, we propose the new key concept of "asymmetrical dependency" to explore all forms of bondages across time and space.
Reading & Discussion with Anne Haeming
Video out now!
The Life of Wilhelm Joest
Watch our short clip about the reading and discussion with Anne Haeming as part of our (UN)ABHÄNGIGE ANSICHTEN series from 15 February 2024.
Anne Haeming was queried on the challenges of writing about an imperial actor like Wilhelm Joest from today's perspective.
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“Whose Prayers Did God Hear?”
Jul 01, 2024
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Portrait of Lysbeth, A Review
Jun 03, 2024
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Congratulations to BCDSS PhD Researcher David B. Smith, whose chapter, "'This is my Story, this is my Song:' Queer Presbyterians, Provocative Questions, Practical Politics, and a Case for Church History in the Development of Theologies of Justice" will be published in the book Awake Emerging, and Connected: Meditations on Justice from a Missing Generation edited by Dr. Victoria Turner (Ripon College Cuddesdon) and published by SCM Press.
David Smith's partly autobiographical and theologically constructive piece reflects on the role of history and historiography in the development of theologies of justice. It does so by charting the way historical patterns of discernment shaped the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its fifty-year struggle over the inclusion, ordination, and marriage of LGBTQIA+ Christians in that religious community.
It is with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of Professor Trevor Burnard, director of the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull.
Das Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies sucht zum schnellstmöglichen Zeitpunkt eine Studentische oder Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft zur Unterstützung im Bereich IT für 12–19 Std. pro Woche.
The Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies is looking for a student assistant (SHK, in the BA programme) or research assistant (WHF, in the MA programme) to support the IT sector for 12–19 hours per week as soon as possible.
Annual Event Series on Gender and Intersectionality
"Magdalena More's Complaint." In Journal of Moravian History
This workshop traces alternative Maroon worlds and worldviews along two specific lines of inquiry, ecology and imagination. Convening scholars from across disciplines (including geography, archaeology, anthropology, literary history and sound studies), we will probe the different environmental and cultural contexts of Marronage. Our goal is to engage with Marronage as an ecological, political and creative practice, underlining how Black ways of engaging with the environment provide a conceptual and practical reorientation to anthropogenic climate change.
We are carrying on with the "WHO'S GOT THE POWER?" series in cooperation with Förderverein Filmkultur at Brotfabrik, Bonn!
Our second film this year, THE EMPTY GRAVE (original: 'DAS LEERE GRAB'), a German-Tanzanian co-production by Agnes Lisa Wegner and Cece Mlay, was launched at the Berlinale Film Festival earlier this year. It addresses the legacy of the German colonial rule in Tanzania: the search for the physical remains of family members, the intergenerational trauma, the quest for justice, the question of future coexistence.
Everyone is warmly welcome to join us for the post-screening talk and reception with drinks and fingerfood in the informal setting of Studio 5.
On the panel representing the BCDSS:
Mary Aderonke Afolabi-Adeolu, PhD Researcher
Boluwatife Akinro, PhD Researcher
Dr. Mercy Mashingaidze, Postdoctoral Researcher & Lecturer
TIME: 4 July 2024
20:00: Screening
21:30: Discussion/Reception
LOCATION: Kino in der Brotfabrik, Kreuzstraße 16, 53225 Bonn
REGISTRATION: To help us plan, kindly register for the discussion/reception by 3 July (below).
Congratulations to PhD Researcher David B. Smith, whose article "'An Open Wound in the Body…' A 'Dependency Turn' in Ecumenical Discourse on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery" has just been published in The Ecumenical Review.
Contact Us
Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS)
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Managing Director: Jeannine Bischoff
Email: dependency@uni-bonn.de
Press and PR Manager: Cécile Jeblawei
Email: pr@dependency.uni-bonn.de
Address
University of Bonn
Niebuhrstraße 5
53113 Bonn
BCDSS Fellowship Programs
Coordination: Sarah Dusend
Email: researchandstudy@dependency.uni-bonn.de
Deputy: Laura Hartmann
Email: l.hartmann@dependency.uni-bonn.de
Address
University of Bonn
Heussallee 18–24
53113 Bonn