Dr. Peyton Albert Hughes

Professor Emeritus of Political Sociology

Dr. Albert Hughes was born in Meridian, Mississippi, and educated in its public schools. He served in the United States Marine Corps through its Reserve Program. His university career began at Mississippi State University where he graduated with a BA in Political Science and History in 1961 and a MA in Political Science and History in 1962. After teaching at William Carey College from 1962-65, he returned to Mississippi State to begin work on the Doctorate in Sociology. He taught and studied at MSU from 1965 to 1968. It was during his USMC experience as an Instructor in Atomic, Bacteriological and Chemical Warfare that he became interested in International Terrorism.

In 1968, Dr. Albert Hughes moved to Boone, North Carolina, site of Appalachian State University, one of the sister institutions of the University of North Carolina system. Appalachian State hired him to conduct summer institutes for public school social science teachers. The program was called the Institute on Constitutional Democracy and was housed in the Department of Political Science. The Directorship was his for six years. In 1972, having been awarded the Ph. D. in Sociology and Political Science from Mississippi State, he was promoted to Associate Professor of Sociology and in 1974 promoted to Professor, one of the youngest in North Carolina. His teaching areas were comparative political, economic and social systems. Other courses he developed and taught included the study of propaganda and political sociology. The specialization area was the study of Eastern Europe and the former USSR (Soviet Union). While Director of the Institute on Constitutional Democracy, he included seminar discussions of International Trade, Globalization of business and Free Trade.

During his tenure at Appalachian, he created the Center for Community Education and was its first Director. The Center for the Study of Private Enterprise was also created by Dr. Hughes, which he directed for three years from the Chancellor’s office. These Centers were established expressly to introduce the ideas of Problems of Globalization and Free Trade, International Terrorism, and International Trade.

Other appointments have included the Director of the Master of Arts in Social Studies program, Director of the Master of Arts in Sociology curriculum, Co-director of the undergraduate minor in East Europe, Russia, and Central Asia program, and Director of Appalachian’s programs in Washington, DC and New York City. People-to-People International’s Student Ambassador Program for high school students appointed him Teacher-Leader for North Carolina for six years. He has made numerous trips to the former Soviet Union and Russia since 1974. The John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, NC invited him as a consultant on Soviet/Russian politics. In 1997, The US Department of State through its Fulbright program, awarded him a teaching fellowship to Belarus State University in Minsk.

Dr. Hughes was one of the founding officers of the North Carolina Political Science Association. Memberships include the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Association, the Southern Sociological Society, the North Carolina Sociology Association, The Triangle University Seminar on National Defense at Duke University, the Southern Slavic Studies Association, and other local professional organizations.

His publications include studies on Affirmative Action; African American political involvement; media propaganda of both the United States, Western democracies and the former Soviet Union; and multi-national corporations and international laws. His book on the political socialization of Soviet Youth, published in 1991, is the only book in English covering the subject. He has one manuscript being considered by publishers at the present time. It is co-authored by a colleague, and is a book on the history of Russian political traditions. In 2005, he published a study of African Americans who traveled to the Soviet Union in 1931 to help improve cotton production. This book is entitled John Sutton, Black Texan, Cotton Farmer for Stalin. The International Journal, Political Crossroads, in Australia, has recently published an article on the future of Russian ideology after Yeltsin, the future of the Red Army, and Russian Political Theory. In his international speaking programs, his topics have covered The Problems of Globalization, International Trade, and Free Trade.

During his tenure, he was awarded several honors including Outstanding Faculty Member in the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Albert Hughes retired as a Professor Emeritus in May 1998 after 30 years at Appalachian State University. The “Albert and Maxine Hughes Scholarship in Sociology” was established and endowed upon his retirement.

Since 1994, Dr. Albert Hughes has been invited to serve as a lecturer on a number of cruise ships. His most recent assignments have been with Seabourn, Cunard, Residensea/The World, Silversea Cruises, Crystal Cruise and Holland America Lines. Since his retirement in 1998, this has become a favorite pastime, while continuing his professional work through channels of lecturing and consulting.