Research

Research

African legal history, vernacular court records, criminal justice and mass incarceration, and the intersection of archives and artificial intelligence.

Book Project
Monograph
The People and Their Pursuit of Justice, Right, and Peace
Sauda Nabukenya
The People and Their Pursuit of Justice, Right, and Peace
Vernacular Legal Culture and the Making of Law in Uganda, ca. 1900–1995

This book recovers how ordinary Ugandans shaped law through the courts they used, the testimony they gave, and the ideas about justice they brought to legal proceedings. It draws on over 150,000 court records held at the Uganda National Archives, from both the High Court of Uganda (in English) and the Mengo Court, Buganda's principal native court (in Luganda). The book traces how vernacular legal reasoning persisted through colonial rule, political upheaval, and postcolonial governance.

Manuscript in preparation
Current & Forthcoming Projects
What I Am Building
Criminal Justice Research
Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration
Leading research evaluating the Michigan Department of Corrections' security classification system, with a focus on racial and gender disparities in how incarcerated people are classified, punished, and granted access to rehabilitation programs.
AI & Archives
Hub for Artificial Intelligence Research in Archives (HAIRA)
Collaborator at Utah State University, working at the intersection of AI tools and archival records. Connected to the Tanner series, the graduate course, and the HTR pilot project.
Speaker Series Forthcoming
The Archive and the Algorithm (2026–27)
A four-lecture public series at USU examining AI, historical knowledge, and the future of the record. Co-organized with Dr. Rebecca Y. Bayeck. Supported by the Tanner Humanities Center. Currently in development; speakers and dates to be announced.
Pilot Project In Development
HTR and NLP for Luganda Court Records
Testing handwriting recognition and natural language processing tools against vernacular African legal records, in collaboration with Makerere University.
Graduate Course In Development
Archives, AI, and Historical Knowledge (HIST 6870)
A new graduate seminar cross-listed with ITLS, co-taught with Dr. Rebecca Y. Bayeck. Students will evaluate AI tools against archival records and design responsible digitization plans.
Editorial Service
African Journal of Legal Studies
Associate Editor. A peer-reviewed journal publishing scholarship on law, legal institutions, and legal cultures across the African continent.
Publications
Published Work
Article
Rethinking Law through Vernacular Records: Archive Encounters and the Recovery of Native Court Records in Uganda
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 2025. Cambridge University Press.
Essay
Court Cases as Epistemology: Reconstructing African History through Legal Archives
Geschichtstheorie am Werk (Hypotheses), September 2025
Read online →
Chapter
Epistemological Limits of Government Archives: Recovering the Voices of Ordinary Litigants in Local Legal Archives
In Adventure Inquiry Discovery: CLIR-Mellon Fellows and the Archives. CLIR Symposium, 2023.
Chapter
Why Constitutions in Africa Do Not Stand the Test of Time: Lessons from Uganda's 1995 Constitution
In Constitution-Building in Africa. University of the Western Cape Community Law Centre, 2015.
Dissertation
In Pursuit of Justice, Right, and Peace: Ordinary Litigants and the Making of Uganda's Legal Culture, ca. 1900–1970
University of Michigan, 2024
In Progress
Work Under Preparation
“Obwenkanya (Justice) and Emirembe (Peace): Vernacular Meaning and the Making of Law in Colonial Buganda”
Article manuscript. Under preparation for presentation at the Law and Society Association Graduate Student and Early Career Workshop, 2026.
“From Domestic Service to Tenancy: Contractual Relations in Colonial Buganda”
Edited volume chapter. For Towards a Law and Anthropology of Contracts: Contracting Africa, edited by Kelly Askew and Jatin Dua.
“The Legal History and Future of Uganda's Constitution”
Handbook chapter. For The Oxford Handbook of African Constitutions, edited by Richard Albert and Berihun Gebeye.
“Customary Law as a Localized Legal Order and the Limits of Colonial Legal Governance”
Handbook chapter. For The Oxford Handbook of Traditional Law and Governance in Africa, edited by Jan Erk and Anthony.
“Technology vs Tradition: The Historical and Legal Controversy of DNA Paternity Testing in Uganda”
Article manuscript. In preparation for The Journal of African History.
“From Court Basements to National Archives: Salvaging and Cataloguing 150,000 Abandoned Legal Records in Uganda”
Article manuscript. Forthcoming.
Book Reviews
Reviews & Invited Service
Review of An African People's Quest for Freedom and Justice: A Political History of Eritrea, 1941–1962 by Alemseged Tesfai (Hurst, forthcoming)
Invited review for African Studies Review, 2025.
Invited reviewer of book proposal, Themes in East African History: Power, Resistance, and Transformation by Nakanyike B. Musisi
For Routledge, 2025.
Review of Colonial Algeria and the Politics of Citizenship by Avner Ofrath (Bloomsbury, 2024)
For African Studies Review, 2025.