Eva Altizer, Staff Writer
Ricky Kampmann Jr. ‘28, described Dr. Trad Nogueira-Godsey as someone easy to talk to. He attributed that to part of the reason he decided to have Nogueira-Godsey as his advisor.
“I think that there wouldn’t be a course that Dr. Trad would teach if he didn’t believe in what was being taught and what was meant to be learned,” Kampmann said.
Known to students as Dr. Trad, he initially came to Denison in the spring of 2022 as an emergency replacement when former professor David O. Woodyard had to quit teaching Introduction to American Religion mid-semester because of COVID-19.
Nogueira-Godsey is 43 and currently lives in Granville. He has been at Denison for five years and got his doctorate at the University of Capetown in South Africa.
“Stepping into a class halfway through the semester, he did a great job of learning the ropes, made sure to connect personally with each student, and was able to pick right up where we left off. And I knew I wanted to take another class with him,” Kampmann said.
Nogueira-Godsey initially got a one-semester visiting assistant professor contract from Denison, but the contracts kept coming.
“[I] just kinda kept hanging around,” Nogueira-Godsey said. “I’ve really enjoyed my time here. I like it a lot. I’ve learned a lot about myself teaching here in surprising and wonderful ways – it’s from my experience teaching here that I think [I really] want to teach undergraduate students.”
Nogueira-Godsey was often spotted with and known for his service dog Titan, who passed away on Jan. 13. Titan was popular with the students, and Nogueira-Godsey kept him around in class even when he had retired from service.
Titan was there to assist with sensory overload, especially in cases of emergency. But even after he retired, Titan was a comforting presence to everyone in class.
When Nogueira-Godsey first started teaching at Denison, he was concerned about how he and Titan would be received.
“You just never really know how people are going to see you when they see that you need a service dog,” Nogueira-Godsey said. “I’ve had a great experience, and it’s because the experience was so good that even though he passed away, I haven’t gotten another service dog to replace him.”
Nogueira-Godsey said he credits the Denison community for being so welcoming.
“Titan was the man,” Kampmann said. “It’s been hard not having him around a little bit. But Dr. Trad doesn’t let that slow him down at all. He’s just a friend to everyone at this stage of his life.”
Nogueira-Godsey has mainly discussion-based classes – so he is constantly navigating the opinions and personal experiences of students with religion.
“I really want students to understand that religion is so much more than whatever their experience has been,” he said. “It just shapes the world that we inhabit to extraordinary degrees. And I think religion is one of the best ways to understand people, that’s important to me.”
Since Nogueira-Godsey received a liberal arts education himself, he wanted to give students the same experience.
“I want students to leave here feeling confident that they have skills to critically analyze something and be able to communicate their findings or their interpretations to others,” Nogueira-Godsey said. “Those are all things that I got from the liberal arts, and I hope to pass those on to students.”
Kampmann said he has received a lot to take away from classes with Nogueira-Godsey.
“I’ve actually learned a lot about how to communicate with people in my class,” Kampmann said.
This communication has helped Kampmann get more not just out of his education, but his fellow students.
“I think it’s really important, because in religion classes, especially, you get such varying opinions, and you get such wide perspectives on everything, so as long as we’re able to meet each other halfway, understanding that we want to discuss and learn [and] to understand, and not [just] form an opinion or be right. I think that’s really helpful, and Dr. Trad facilitates that in the best way possible,” Kampmann said.