Photo of Professor Herman Bell

Professor Herman Bell

M.Litt. (Oxon.), M.A. & Ph.D. (Northwestern)

Email:

Extension: 5250

Telephone: 01392 725250

Professor, Senior Research Fellow

Herman Bell is a Senior Research Fellow at Exeter. He is collaborating with Nubian scholars on the languages and culture of Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia. His activities include:

Discovering Nubia

  • Preserving a large collection of photographs taken before the Nubians had to leave their homelands along the Nile in 1964 as a result of the flood waters of the High Dam near Aswan
  • Using the photographs to stimulate memories of the historic homelands
  • Recording a corpus of memories in the Nubian language with translation and commentary in English and Arabic
  • Collaborating with Nubian institutions to disseminate the results of this project
  • Collaborating with Nubian scholars who are promoting literacy in Nubian and developing a writing system based on the distinctive Nubian alphabet of the mediaeval period
  • Promoting Nubian creativity in music, art and literature
  • Providing a record of the spectacular house decorations of Nubia before the flood

    For the Nubian Studies and Documentation Centre please click on http://www.thenubian.net/nsdc.php
    For the Nubian Museum in Aswan please click on http://www.numibia.net/nubia/intro.htm

Survey of Geographical Names

  • Serving as a Sudan Expert at the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) since 2000
  • Serving as a Consultant for the Sudanese National Committee for Geographical Names since 2000
  • Recording the geographical names of Nubia since 1962
  • Served as a Member of the Board of the National Atlas of the Sudan in 1978-79

Minority Languages

Charity

  • Serving as a trustee for a registered English charity Together for Sudan granting scholarships to Sudanese women from war-torn areas

    For website please click on http://www.togetherforsudan.org.uk/

For more information please click here for CV.