Some good docs: https://sourcethemes.com/academic/post/getting-started/ https://sourcethemes.com/academic/post/managing-content/ https://sourcethemes.com/academic/post/widgets/
Note there's also an example website bundled with the template; you've deleted a lot of the files (since they weren't necessary for your current needs), may be worth consulting. This is in themes/academic/exampleSite.
You need to run git submodule update --init --recursive the first time you clone this repository. You will also need to snap install hugo --channel=extended. Then just run ./view.sh to preview.