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.

See also: Curriculum Vitae of Dean J. Blaine Hudson(April 2012)

About Dean J. Blaine Hudson:

Blaine Hudson is a lifelong Louisville resident, married, with three adult children, three adult stepchildren and six grandchildren.  He is a 1967 graduate of Louisville Male High School, earned his B.S. in 1974 and M.Ed. in 1975 from the University of Louisville and his Ed.D. in 1981 from the University of Kentucky.  Between 1974 and 1992, Hudson held successive professional and ultimately administrative positions in University academic support and developmental programs while teaching part-time in the Departments of History and Pan-African Studies.  He also served as University Staff Grievance Officer (part-time) between 1987 and 1992.

Hudson joined the Department of Pan-African Studies on a full-time basis in 1992 and, along with his other faculty responsibilities, directed the Pan-African Studies Institute for Teachers until 1998.  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, Hudson 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 permanent Dean in June 2005.

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-seven (27) different courses, twenty-one (22) of which he developed.  He has contributed to the establishment of international programs in Barbados, Belize, Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Trinidad—and led study abroad groups to Barbados, Belize and South Africa.  Since 1992, Hudson has published three books, Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in the Kentucky Borderland (2002), The Encyclopedia of Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad (2006) and co-authoring Two Centuries of Black Louisville: A Photographic History (2011).  Currently, he is co-editing the Handbook of Diversity in Higher Education, scheduled for publication in 2013, and beginning work on The History of African Americans in Louisville.  He has also published eight (8) book chapters, twenty-seven (28) journal articles, sixteen (16) encyclopedia entries, served as a Consulting Editor of the Encyclopedia of Louisville (2001), conducted the research for ten (10) historical markers, seven (7) markers located in Freedom Park, and served as an historical consultant for the Farmington and Locust Grove historic homes, the Muhammad Ali Center and the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage.

Hudson remains active as a public historian affiliated with the University’s Public History and Black Heritage Studies graduate certificate programs, as a contributor to local and regional racial and social justice organizations, serves on numerous local and state boards and commissions, and coordinates and teaches in the Saturday Academy, a weekend community education program focusing on African World history and culture.  In 2009 and 2010, he served as a mentor for new deans and on the standing committees for Cultural Diversity and Research Universities for the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences.  Most significantly, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Muhammad Ali Center, has served as chair of the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission since 1999 and as chair of the Kentucky State Advisory Committee to the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights since 2005.

See also: Curriculum Vitae of Dean J. Blaine Hudson(April 2012)