David Ponwitz

David Ponwitz is a PhD Researcher at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), affiliated with Research Area C: Institutions, Norms and Practices at the University of Bonn. His research focuses on asymmetrical dependency in 6th-century Merovingian Gaul, employing legal pluralism to analyze normative frameworks across Roman law, Frankish governance, and Catholicism.

Educational background includes a Magister Iuris (Law), First State Examination in Law (2019), and MLitt in Legal and Constitutional Studies (St. Andrews, 2019–2020). He has held academic positions since 2012, including Research Assistant roles in Roman Law, Legal Philosophy, and Comparative Legal History at the University of Bonn.

Research emphasizes micro-level societal conflicts and macro-level institutional paradigms, challenging modern assumptions about top-down social stratification. Current work integrates literary sources with legal texts to reconstruct normative practices.