TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — A Troy University literature professor is on a six month-long trip to Uganda, attempting to record the stories that until now, have only been spoken.
Dr. Richard Scott Nokes has built his career around Medieval, European literature. Now, curiosity stretching beyond that one topic has caused him to ask one very big question.
“I’ve always been interested in what we call global medievalism, but you know sometimes we don’t know once we get out of Europe, what was going on in the rest of the world,” Nokes said. “And when I started looking for information on sub-Saharan Africa, there was almost nothing.”
Then, a comment on a paper from grad school urged Nokes to get curious about the unknown.
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“When I was a grad student, my first paper that I ever gave an academic conference, I sent to have it published and of all the different reviewers, one of them said ‘why didn’t he address x issue?’ and the reason I didn’t address x issue was because I didn’t know the answer because no one knew the answer,” Nokes said. “And one thing I learned was: when you start researching something that no one knows about, you’re going to find something. It might not be what you thought you were going to find, but you’re going to find something.”
It’s because of that lack of knowledge surrounding medieval era sub-Saharan Africa, that Nokes is now in Uganda, learning about and recording stories that have been passed down by generations.
“I thought they might have some remnants of what came before in the oral tradition so I came here with a lot of audio and video recording equipment and things like that to collect their stories and to see what we can find,” Nokes said.
It has now been a few weeks since he arrived in Uganda, but his research has not began due to an election and an internet outage. He is not beginning his project and will be there for another six months.
Nokes was able to travel to Uganda because he was awarded the Fulbright grant, a merit-rewarded federal program funding academic study or research in other countries.
