We're excited to celebrate the induction of Dr. Dwight Billings into the College of Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame! 

Dwight Billings, professor emeritus of sociology, has been a pioneer in Appalachian Studies and the examination of inequality in the region. He was born in Logan, West Virginia, in 1948 and moved to Beckley when he was 10. In Logan, he attended an elementary school that was segregated not only by race but by occupation, which inspired him to pursue research into race and class inequality. Both Logan and Beckley were sites of deadly coal mining accidents as well as intense labor conflicts, and throughout his career he has been interested in and supportive of labor struggles.

He joined the UK faculty in 1975 and earned his doctorate in sociology from the University of North Carolina in 1976. As an assistant professor, he helped to establish the UK Appalachian Center and the Appalachian Studies Program. He served as the Center’s first research director, the first director of Appalachian Studies and as associate director and acting director. Having taught at UK for 43 years, he earned the UK Chancellor’s Outstanding Teaching Award (for Tenured Faculty, 2000), the 2003 Distinguished Professor of the College of Arts and Sciences award and the 1993-94 UK Research Professor Award.

Outside of UK, he has served as the president of the Appalachian Studies Association, vice president of the Southern Sociological Society and editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies. He and his former UK Sociology colleague, Kathleen Blee, won the Weatherford Award for best nonfiction book on Appalachia for The Road to Poverty: The Making of Wealth and Hardship in an American Region. To acknowledge his mentorship, teaching and service, the Department of Sociology endowed a graduate student scholarship in his honor called the Billings-Hougland Scholarship Gift Fund.

For more information or to RSVP to the ceremony visit: https://www.as.uky.edu/halloffame