Research Group Leader Research Area B: Economies of SAD

Research Group Leader for the Research Area B:
Economies of SAD

The University of Bonn is an international research university with a wide education and research profile. With a 200-year history, approximately 31,500 students, more than 6,000 staff, and an excellent reputation at home and abroad, the University of Bonn is one of the most important universities in Germany and is recognized as a university of excellence .

Research Group Leader for the Research Area B:

Economies of SAD

The BCDSS, a German Research Council-funded “Cluster of Excellence”, offers excellent opportunities for interdisciplinary and comparative research of different forms of Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies (SADs) across time periods and world regions. During its first phase (2019–2025), the BCDSS successfully developed the concept of SAD as a comprehensive analytical framework to understand how power imbalances have been shaped in the past, and continue to influence, societies around the world today.

In its second funding phase (2026–2032), the BCDSS will investigate the underlying causes and mechanisms that contribute to the persistence of SADs across historical and contemporary contexts. We aim to anchor Historically Informed Dependency Studies (HIDS) as a key interdisciplinary field in the humanities, encouraging scholars across the humanities and social sciences to systematically integrate the analysis of SADs into the study of social, economic, and cultural phenomena.

Our research focuses on five Research Areas:

• Transitions and Transformations of SADs,
• Economies of SADs,
• Power – Violence – Trauma,
• Cultural Heritage – Transitional Justice – Memory Cultures,
• Alternative Archives and Life Writing.

The successful candidate will lead a Research Group in the BCDSS’ Research Area B “Economies of SAD”, design and conduct independent projects on the history of dependency that closely relate to Research Area B’s research goals. Topics can be of a wide variety – from micro studies to wide scale approaches, in any historical period or geographical region. A Research Group at the BCDSS is an independent research unit led by an early-career researcher to pursue an original research agenda while supervising a small team of researchers.

The successful candidate will recruit two doctoral researchers for the research group and collaborate closely with colleagues from the BCDSS, in particular the cluster professor for Economic Anthropology. Furthermore, the successful candidate will be part of the interdisciplinary and international research community.

• Developing the research profile of the Research Group on the relationship between coercive exclusion, economic behaviour, and the broader social, cultural, and normative contexts in which they are embedded from a historical perspective,
• Recruiting and supervising two doctoral researchers,
• Providing academic leadership and strategic development of the Research Group,
• Conducting an independent research project leading to a second monograph or equivalent work,
• Developing innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to analyse SAD contextualizing their economic entanglements,
• Organising and contributing to international workshops, seminars, and conferences,
• Building national and international research networks.

• The opportunity to establish and lead an independent Research Group, including the recruitment and supervision of two doctoral researchers,
• Membership in the interdisciplinary and international research environment of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS),
• An open, collaborative, and innovative research culture that encourages interdisciplinary exchange,
• Mentoring by two senior professors and comprehensive opportunities for professional and leadership development,
• Excellent institutional support for independent research, career development, families, and equal opportunities,
• Many options available for university sports,
• a workplace in central Bonn with multiple transport links and parking options,
• Flexible working hours and the ability to work from home,
• Remuneration in accordance with TV-L pay grade 14.