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Fulbright Scholarship taking Edwards to Kenya

An old saying counsels that a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.

But Bruce L. Edwards Jr., who has had a lifelong desire to explore Africa, will begin his 9,000-mile journey to that continent this week by submitting to the first in a series of 11 medical shots to prevent everything from hepatitis A and B, to malaria, rabies, polio, typhoid and yellow fever.

Edwards, English and an associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to teach and conduct research in Kenya during the next academic year.

He will begin his 10-month teaching assignment in late August, serving as a visiting professor at Daystar University in the capital city of Nairobi.

In addition, he has been invited by the Kenyan government to conduct a literacy and language research project centering on how Kenyan secondary schools can better prepare their students for the academic rigors of higher education.

One of 10 private universities in the country, Daystar has an enrollment of about 1,500 undergraduates and 500 graduate students. Edwards will be teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in communications, rhetoric and literary criticism as well as a survey course on the writings on one of his favorite authors, C.S. Lewis.

"I have always loved the continent of Africa and have always wanted to travel there," Edwards said, adding, "I have a deep appreciation for the contributions and suffering of Africa, and I am excited to be able to learn more about it in a much more personal way."

Located on the equator in east Africa, Kenya is about the size of Texas and has an estimated 29 million people. A former British colony, the country is thought by anthropologists to be the "cradle of humanity." It is also at the center of African safari country and boasts the most diverse collection of wild animals on the continent.

While Edwards said he hopes his teaching and research will benefit the government and people of Kenya, he said he knows that what he learns will benefit Bowling Green.

Edwards said his experiences should aid the University in its current multicultural and diversity initiatives, and he said it will make him a better teacher, especially in the area of postcolonial literature.

In addition, he said he hope to assist in efforts to recruit more African students to Bowling Green.

When Edwards arrives in Nairobi, there will be one familiar face to greet him. Faith Gathu, a former student who earned her doctoral degree from the University in 1993, chairs the English department at Daystar.

Edwards joined the Bowling Green faculty in 1981, after earning his doctoral degree in rhetoric from the University of Texas. ---He is the author of seven textbooks, five chapters in textbooks and more than 35 journal articles. He has also presented papers at more than 35 regional and national conferences.---

No stranger to teaching abroad, he served as the S.W. Brooks Visiting Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

A member of the National Council of English Teachers and the Conference on Christianity and Literature, Edwards spent two years as a scholar-in-residence at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. ---His current research interests include rhetorical theory, linguistics, religion and literature, literary and critical theory, and southern U.S. literature from 1945-present.---

The Fulbright award will pay for Edwards' travel expenses and will also provide him a monthly stipend while he is in Nairobi. His wife and two of their four children will accompany him.

The Fulbright Program began in August 1946. The idea of then-U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright, the program was designed to promote peace and democracy in the post-World War II world.

Since then, the Fulbright program has grown into seven distinct divisions, facilitating exchanges among students, faculty and business leaders in more than 150 countries.

More than 75 Bowling Green students and faculty have been selected as Fulbright scholars since the program began.