Workshop “Freiheit – Unfreiheit – Freiwilligkeit” in Berlin

Two Upcoming Talks by our Group

On October 10, 2023, Jürgen Martschukat and Florian Wagner, PIs in our subprojects on “Voluntariness as Political Practice” and “Voluntariness and Repatriation”, are going to participate in a workshop on “Freiheit – Unfreiheit – Freiwilligkeit” at the Freie Universität Berlin. The program is organized by members of the project “Der globale Wandel der Kategorie ‘Zwangsarbeit’” at the Institute for Latin American Studies.

The workshop is planned to present work in progress and will show different perspectives on conceptions of freedom and discuss the central keywords freedom, unfreedom as well as voluntariness. In addition to the contributions on “Voluntariness as Political Practice: Being a Citizen in the Emerging USA” by Jürgen or the question of “Collectivization through Tradition? On the Indigenization of ‘Voluntary’ Labor in Late Colonialism” by Florian, empirical studies on different forms and historical-regional contexts of free and unfree labor will be the focus of the exchange.

Starting with a dinner on October 9, 2023, all panels will take place on October 10 from 9 to 5:15 pm. The group meets at the FU Berlin in the seminar room on the ground floor (Boltzmannstraße 1, 14195 Berlin). You are welcome to contact the organizing team for attendance or any further questions. Please write to Raffaela Pfaff (r.pfaff(at)fu-berlin.de).

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Special Issue “Ausweisen – Rückführen – Abschieben”

What Else Is New?

Special Issue on Voluntariness at Rethinking History

Members of our research group have compiled a special issue for the journal Rethinking History on the topic of “The Politics of Voluntariness in Modern History.” The issue is edited by Jürgen Martschukat and Alexandra Oeser and all pieces are available for download as open access articles on the journal’s website. Get the links right here.

New Conference Report and Podcast Episode online

On October 24 & 25, 2024 the international workshop „From Contested Ownership to (In)Voluntary Returns. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Postcolonial Fight for Restitution and Repatriation“ took place in Erfurt. You may read the conference report on HSozKult or listen to an interview with Flower Manase, visiting Mercator Fellow to the CRC “Structural Change of Property” in 2024, on the CRC’s podcast “Appropriate”.

Conference Report on the Workshop “Voluntariness, Women, and Development”

New conference report online!
On July 4 and 5, 2024, Maria Framke, working on the research project “Hidden Histories: Women in Rural Development Programs in India, c. 1920-1966” and affiliated with our group, organized the workshop “Voluntariness, Women and Development in Late Colonial and Postcolonial Societies.” Read more here…