The Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, under the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zululand, invites you to submit your abstracts for the Fourth International Anthropology and Development Studies Conference in 2025.

For all (existing) colonial structures, there have constantly been anti- and decolonial counterforces. However, coloniality has always found a way to reconfigure itself, shifting from rigid violence to more symbolic violence expressed through Human Rights in developing countries. With its legacies of colonial structures, coloniality strengthens its matrix of power through the imposition of Western human rights frameworks on African societies which has led to tensions between local and global governance mechanisms.

The theme Reclaiming Human Rights? Decolonising Development for a Just Future, seeks to inspire conversations with academics, communities, activists, and administrators who challenge existing frameworks, centre African perspectives, critically engage with Western epistemologies, and contribute to unmasking and decolonising human rights.

The 2025 International Anthropology and Development Studies Conference will interrogate how Human Rights serve as symbolic violence to perpetuate tensions between local and global governance. Thus, we invite papers and poster presentations from community activists, academics, civil society, and governance viewpoints.

Themes to be covered in the conference may include, but are not limited to: