Once or twice a month, UofL Today profiles people who help to make the university what it is. This week get to know A&S dean Blaine Hudson — In Person.
Name: Dr. J. Blaine Hudson
UofL title and department: dean, College of Arts and Sciences; professor, Department of Pan-African Studies
At UofL since: 1974 (as an employee); since 1967 (as a student)
In current post since: 2004
Hometown: Louisville
First job and what I learned from it: My first job (at UofL) was that of an administrative coordinator in the School of Education (1974-1975). Having worked previously in the old Louisville Public School system and with the poverty program, my first campus job taught me a great deal about working in the university environment. And Dean F. Randall Powers was a great mentor—still my example of an ideal dean.
The thing I like most about what I do: I can make a significant difference in the lives of students, staff and faculty—everyday, sometimes in very little ways and other times in ways much larger scale. In a unit the size of A&S, I never do this entirely alone—and must work with a superb group of colleagues to get anything meaningful done. Also, I can still spend most of my time being an educator—as a leader, of course, but I can still teach and do research—if I manage my time well.
I am: I strive to be a good global citizen and responsible global citizenship requires an active commitment to social justice. I am also still a poet and a dreamer—who is interested in almost everything.
I never: give up on what I believe in.
Guilty pleasure: I feel no guilt over anything that gives me pleasure (smile).
Favorite book(s): “The Souls of Black Folk” by W. E. B. DuBois; “The Brothers Karamazov,” by Dosteyevsky; “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzerald; “Augustus” by John Williams.
Favorite TV show: “Star Trek” (all incarnations)
In the car I listen to: oldies or NPR
Favorite quote(s):
- “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Frederick Douglass, 1857.
- “I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! From “Ulysses,” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1833. - “You eat life or life eats you.” Tahitian proverb.
These animals share my world: My cat “Betty”
My day begins: at 6 a.m.
I wish I had more time to: spend with my family.
When I’m not cheering for the Cards, I’m cheering for: the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Most Friday nights you’ll find me: at home, trying to unwind with family.
If my life were a movie: it would be a version of The Odyssey.
Anything else you’d like the UofL community to know: Being in Louisville and being at UofL for so many years have both been challenges—with many good times and bad. But, as Lyman Johnson once said, “I like it here.”