Presentation at the Dies Academicus, University of Bonn

3 December 2025

Photo: Christian Mader

Christian Mader and Philip Atta Mensah presented "Sensing the Materiality of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: An Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Approach" at the Dies Academicus of the University of Bonn on December 3, 2025, sharing initial findings from our project on Fort William in Ghana.

Is there a material signature for slavery and colonialism? Starting from this question, the presentation showed how the project combines material culture studies, digital archaeology, historical research, and multisensory ethnographic methods to understand the European forts not only as logistical nodes of imperial violence, but as enduring architectures of exploitation that continue to shape social, spatial, and political realities in postcolonial contexts.