Slavery Studies

Our Master's programme is a one-year, research-oriented degree programme offering you a broad perspective on interdisciplinary research on slavery and slavery-like phenomena through time and space. It is an interdisciplinary programme covering text-based scholarship, material culture studies and social sciences. The design of the programme allows students to study slavery and slavery-like phenomena and to develop their individual and specialised research profiles. Our Master's students should profit from the cutting-edge research on slavery and the newly developed concept of “strong asymmetrical dependency” conducted in the interdisciplinary and international environment of the Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies / the Cluster of Excellence (BCDSS) "Beyond Slavery and Freedom". We offer: a specialised and innovative Master’s degree in “Slavery Studies” an interdisciplinary and intercultural research environment support and supervision by internationally renowned scholars excellent qualification within two semesters excellent student support A total of five modules must be attended in the course of the programme, of which four are compulsory modules and one compulsory elective module. The first semester introduces students to the topic of "slavery (and beyond that forms of strong asymmetrical dependencies)". In addition to this historical and typological classification, theoretical and methodological knowledge is also deepened in module one. In accordance with the interdisciplinary perspective and innovative character of the programme, courses on transcultural comparison and current research debates in the field of slavery (and dependency) studies are included (module two & three). Module four is dedicated to the preparation of the Master's thesis, which is scheduled for the end of the semester. Identifying a suitable topic and sources, developing research questions, literature search as well as the recapitulation of "doing research" are part of the module as well as the presentation and discussion of the research project in a Master's colloquium. In addition to the mentioned courses, practising academic writing in English and courses on "doing research" are part of the programme. This provides a solid foundation for the MA thesis. PDF Download