Welcome to the Cluster of Excellence at the  
Bonn Center for Dependency & Slavery Studies 

The Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies invites you to participate in an upcoming series of cultural events featuring the renowned Bolivian theater group 'Teatro de los Andes', taking place in Bonn throughout October and November 2026. The program includes the German premiere of 'Pallay', a multidisciplinary performance inspired by Indigenous Andean textile traditions, as well as a concert and a workshop centred on Andean music, ritual practices, and community-based forms of knowledge. Their guest visit offers an opportunity to engage with questions addressing cultural heritage, memory, Indigenous knowledge systems, artistic expression, and the relationships between past, present, and future. These notions are highly relevant to the research carried out by the BCDSS, for example by principal investigator Carla Jaimes Betancourt. The program is hosted by Bonn–La Paz e.V. in cooperation with Theater Marabu,  Bühne der Brotfabrik and the University of Bonn.

Join us on Thursday, July 9, 2026 at 4-6 pm for the book launch and discussion of the recently published book "Arbeitswelten" (Doutch/Engelhardt/López/Premchander/Wenner, 2026) with BCDSS Research Group Leader Benjamin Etzold and two of the editors, BCDSS Investigator Michaela Doutch and Anne Engelhardt.

The Iconography of 'Otherness' in Pre-Modern Visual Art - A Cross-Cultural Approach is edited by BCDSS Investigator Martin Bentz (University of Bonn) and former BCDSS PhD Researcher Patrick Zeidler (Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Munich, Germany). It also features contributions by BCDSS Principal Investigators Birgit Münch and Julia Hegewald.

Congratulations to former BCDSS Guest Researcher Tâmis Parron on the publication of his monograph Slavery in Capitalism: A Deep History of Elements in Ancient and Pre-Modern Economies with Cambridge University Press. 

A new interdisciplinary volume co-edited by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alice Toso, Annamaria Diana, and Daniela Marcu-Istrate has been published by Bloomsbury Academic. Human Identities in the Archaeological Recordbrings together international perspectives on how individual and collective identities can be reconstructed from archaeological evidence, spanning Late Antiquity to the modern period.

Shooting Back: Documentary Film in Latin America and the Caribbean brings much-needed critical attention to the documentary and ethnographic filmmaking traditions of Latin America and the Caribbean, regions where fiction cinema has long dominated scholarly discourse. This wide-ranging collection explores the diverse social, cultural, political, and institutional forces that shape nonfiction filmmaking across the hemisphere. Featuring essays from leading and emerging scholars, the volume examines how documentary and ethnographic films have responded to and influenced political movements, national identity, and cultural memory. Contributors investigate how these films affirm or contest colonial legacies, challenge systems of power and inequality, and reflect ongoing struggles around migration, diaspora, and decolonial thought. In addition to thematic explorations, Shooting Back delves into the practical realities of filmmaking in the region, from production and distribution to the roles played by educational and governmental institutions. The collection also considers the impact of film festivals, evolving technologies, and transnational networks, offering comparative analyses of key works and filmmakers. As both a scholarly intervention and an invitation for further research, Shooting Back situates Latin American and Caribbean documentary within broader conversations about global cinema, postcolonial critique, and Global South studies. This volume is an essential resource for film scholars, Latin Americanists, and anyone interested in the political and aesthetic power of nonfiction film.

Congratulations to former BCDSS Research Group Leader Dr. Jutta Wimmler! She has been awarded a prestigious five-month Short-term Fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. Sponsored by the Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung, the fellowship will begin in September 2026 and will allow Dr. Wimmler to advance her independent research project on Das Königliche Lagerhaus Berlin 1713-1815: Ein Textilunternehmen und seine Angestellten in einer sich globalisierenden Welt

Join us for the book talk "Indenture, Blackbirding, Women’s Cultures of Resistance in the Western Pacific" on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at 18:00 at P26, co-organized with the Global Heritage Lab. The event is part of the BCDSS (IN-)DEPENDENT INSIGHTS reading and discussion series.