New IDOS–BCDSS Research Group POESIS in Bonn Cluster of Excellence

POESIS explores knowledge dependencies and socio-ecological inequities in contemporary ocean politics.

Building on its partnership with the University of Bonn’s Cluster of Excellence, the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), and the professorial affiliation of IDOS Director Prof. Anna-Katharina Hornidge with the University of Bonn, IDOS has co-established a new cross-institutional research group, POESIS (Power, Knowledge, and Servitude at Sea), for the Cluster’s second funding phase (2026–2032).

Funded by the BCDSS and embedded at IDOS, POESIS will be led by Senior Researcher Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa (she/her), in collaboration with Anna-Katharina Hornidge, with both having contributed to the conceptual development of the Cluster’s second-phase grant application in 2025. The group will be jointly anchored in the departments of Environmental Governance and Knowledge Cooperation and will recruit two fully funded doctoral researchers starting in October 2026.

POESIS investigates knowledge dependencies and socio-ecological inequities shaping contemporary ocean politics, with a focus on riverine-coastal mineral extraction, underwater biocultural conservation, and shipping-related maritime pollution. It further examines the intersections between the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the UN Ocean Decade, climate and biodiversity governance, while contributing to IDOS´ ongoing work on structural asymmetries in knowledge cooperation and development practice.