About the Dean

The Dean is the Chief Academic and Administrative Officer of the College of Arts and Sciences and reports directly to the Provost. The Dean ensures the academic integrity of all educational programs; encourages excellence in teaching; fosters research, creative activity, and collegiality; oversees the fiscal well being of the unit; and is responsible for alumni relations and solicitation of major gifts for the College.

About Dean J. Blaine Hudson:

A lifelong Louisville resident and 1967 graduate of Louisville Male High School, Dr. J. Blaine Hudson earned a B.S. in 1974 and M.Ed. in 1975 from the University of Louisville and an Ed.D. from the University of Kentucky in 1981. Between 1974 and 1992, Dr. Hudson held several professional and ultimately administrative positions in University academic support and developmental programs while teaching part-time for the Departments of History and Pan-African Studies. He also served as University Staff Grievance Officer (part-time) between 1987 and 1992.

Dr. Hudson joined the Department of Pan-African Studies on a full-time basis in 1992 and, since that time, has directed the Pan-African Studies Institute for Teachers. He served as chair of the Department from October 1998 through December 2003 and served as Associate Dean (for Retention and Diversity) of the College of Arts and Sciences from October 1999 through June 2003. In July 2003, he was promoted to full professor and was appointed Associate Dean (for Faculty Personnel and Diversity Programs) of the College. On March 1, 2004, he was appointed Acting Dean of the College and, after a national search, was appointed Dean in June 2005.

Dr. Hudson’s teaching and research focus on the histories and cultures of persons of African ancestry throughout the world, inter-cultural education, diversity, and the history and social psychology of race. Over the course of his academic career, he has taught twenty-six (26) different courses, twenty-one (21) of which he developed. Since 1992, he has published one (1) book, Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in the Kentucky Borderland (2002), five (5) book chapters, twenty-two (22) journal articles, sixteen (16) encyclopedia entries (and served as a Consulting Editor of the Encyclopedia of Louisville, 2001) and did the research for ten (10) historical markers. Currently, he is working on a national “Encyclopedia of the Underground Railroad” for Greenwood Press and has several other works in progress.

He remains active in the racial and social justice movements, and serves on numerous local and state boards and commissions, with recent appointments to the Kentucky State Advisory Committee to the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights and as chair of the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission.