Overview of the BCDSS and its Research Aims:
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 candidates will formulate and conduct independent projects in the field of Historically Informed Dependency Studies (HIDS) that relate to one of the BCDSS’ Research Areas mentioned above. The proposed projects may address any issue relevant to the study of Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies, from any discipline respective to the chosen Research Area. Topics can therefore be of a wide variety – from micro studies to wide scale approaches, in any historical period or geographical region.
Furthermore, the successful candidates will be part of the interdisciplinary and international research community and will also participate in the BCDSS’s Doctoral Program that offers thorough preparation and support during their doctoral dissertation work, including academic course work, additional skills training, and close supervision and monitoring.
