Sol Plaatje University, together with the Anthropology Southern Africa (ASnA) Council, warmly invites submissions for the 2026 ASnA Conference, to be held from 25–27 August 2026 in Kimberley, Northern Cape. Established in 2014 as the country’s first post-apartheid university, SPU was founded with a clear commitment to transformation, equity, and advancing higher education Its mission to advance critical learning, research, and social justice sets the stage for this year’s theme, “Anthropology Otherwise?”.

The Northern Cape is shaped by colonial-apartheid histories, forced removals, and legacies of extraction, while also being a region where Indigenous knowledge systems, African epistemes, and plural ways of being converge. These intersecting histories and epistemologies produce a layered present that resists singular definitions, calling for alternative ways of seeing. SPU offers a space where these dynamic forces inform how we imagine and enact anthropology today.

In this context, the term ‘Otherwise’ takes on multiple meanings across academic, political, and everyday realms—sometimes expansive, sometimes unsettling. Rather than seeking to resolve these interpretations, the conference embraces them. ‘Anthropology Otherwise’ opens space for diverse modes of inquiry, theory, method, and relation to sit alongside one another, inviting participants to explore what becomes possible when anthropology is approached with openness, experimentation, and attentiveness to plurality.

This theme encourages contributions that rethink anthropology’s ethical commitments, conceptual vocabularies, and methodological futures from the vantage point of Southern Africa’s layered histories and generative worlds

The sub-themes included, but were not limited to:

In addition to traditional paper and panel presentations, the conference welcomes roundtables, performances, exhibitions, posters, and experimental formats. It will feature heritage-related engagements in Kimberley and creative collaborations that place scholarship in dialogue with local artistic and community practices. Through these diverse approaches, the conference seeks to strengthen anthropological scholarship across Southern Africa, support postgraduate and early-career researchers, and consolidate new trajectories in the field through inclusive and dialogic exchange.

Submission Guidelines

An abstract of 150 to 200 words, together with your name, institutional affiliation,

contact details, and a short biographical note of no more than 100 words.

Deadlines

First call: 20 March

Second call: 15 April

Third call: 15 May

Final call: 15 June

Please submit your abstract and author details here: https://forms.gle/eaQ4MccSmC4tsE9B7

A full draft programme will be circulated by the end of July 2026.

Conference Co-Chairs:

Tamia Botes (tamia.botes@spu.ac.za)

Dr Edmore Chitukutuku (edmore.chitukutuku@spu.ac.za)

Refilwe Ditlholelo (refilwe.ditlhoelo@spu.ac.za)

We look forward to welcoming you to Kimberley in August 2026 as we gather to think and

practise anthropology otherwise.