the changing political climate was having on the discipline, volkekunde at the Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit had become stagnant and was ultimately phased out by the university by 1993. After 1994, however, van der Waal (2015) recalls that there was a keen turn by the university towards scholarship contributing to the new dispensation. As such, as one of the senior staff members of the recently closed anthropology department, who had been offered space in the Development Studies department, van der Waal felt a need and saw an opportunity to gradually resuscitate the discipline (Anthropology) by adding some anthropological modules for first years within development studies (van der Waal, 2015). As of 1996, he had been successful in drawing up second and third year programmes, actively contributing, indeed, to their resuscitation. The appointment of Thea de Wet to teach Anthropology under a permanent position, more specifically, in 2000 formally reintroduced Anthropology in the institution, merging it this time around with Development Studies to form what is today the UJ Anthropology and Development Studies Department (van der Waal, 2015). In 2002, an already existing anthropological association in South Africa, formerly established (in 1978) as the Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Etnologie (South African Journal of Ethnology), was renamed to become the Anthropology Southern Africa Association (ASnA). Underlying this change was the structural reconstruction of the association to allow for more inclusivity and decolonial critical scholarship within the discipline of Anthropology (Morreira 2021). As such, from the early 2000s until the second decade of the 21st century, much intellectual work and debates in anthropological and developmental circles were focused on re-imagining and redirecting the discipline towards more liberatory discourse and practice. Some notable works illustrative of this transformation are from scholars like Heiker Berker (2005; 2007), Shannon Morreira (2012), Kharnita Mohamed (2012), and Francis Nyamjoh (2012). Although not entirely free from the chains of its past, Anthropology and Development Studies appear to have made much progress throughout South Africa as far as heeding the call for decolonisation of South African scholarship is concerned. In UJ, in particular, in addition to curricular changes, paradigm shifts, transformed discourse and research outputs, the UJ Department of Anthropology and Development Studies has instituted several programmes which attempt to foster academic growth through innovative leadership and mentorship. As a result, throughout the years, the department has evolved into becoming a dynamic and diverse community united in search of a more socially just and epistemically reparative future. Adopting an auto-ethnographic approach and drawing from one of the authors’ experiences in the department as a case study, the next section explores the nature of some of these programmes. 61 A Journey of Innovation
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