Micheal C. Pounds

Office:	UTC-240
Office Hours:	By appointment
Phone:	562-985-2297
E-mail:	mpounds@csulb.edu

Micheal Charles Pounds joined the faculty of California State University at Long Beach in August 1989. Prior positions include associate professor on the faculties of California State University in San Bernardino, Rutgers University, and University of North Florida. During 1985, he received an appointment as Visiting Faculty from IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research. In the IBM position, Pounds was given full editorial responsibility for the Computing Services Department's monthly newsletter. At IBM he wrote articles on various computer research topics, developed user guide materials, and researched and wrote publicity materials on research uses for PCs.

In his current academic position, he teaches communication theory, media history, aesthetics and criticism, television, film, and audio production, and writing for the media. His research interests have produced several academic publications, papers and research grant awards. Pounds recently completed two books entitled Star Trek Generations and Race in Space that examine the relationship between American television and its ethnic images. His articles have been published in Semiotics 1984, Semiotics 1985, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and Quarterly DEC Journal. His review of Mark Reid's Redefining Black Film appears in Film Quarterly. His most current work, Race in Space, explores the relationship between "Star Trek" and one of America's most enduring social issues: ethnic equality. Just published, it is available from Scarecrow Press (1-800-462-6420).

Beyond these academic accomplishments, in 1989 Pounds wrote, directed and edited a video documentary entitled Just Like You that explores race relations on a Southern California university campus from the perspective of Mexican American and African American male and female undergraduates. While on the faculty of the University of North Florida, Pounds proposed, designed, and supervised the installation of a multimedia production facility for that institution's instructional and public relations needs. His creative interests in media are expressed by two feature-length motion picture scripts and a full treatment for a third.

In preparation for a career as an educator/researcher, Pounds completed graduate studies at New York University in the disciplines of Cinema Studies and Communication. In November of 1981, after successfully defending his thesis, entitled "Details in Black: A Case Study Investigation and Analysis of the Content of the United States War Department Motion Picture THE NEGRO SOLDIER, (Vol. I and II)," he was conferred the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Pounds is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland. Pounds is the younger of two sons of Moses Belt and Katherine McCutchen Pounds. His father owned a small trucking business and died in 1992. His mother, a retired aerospace technician, lives in Columbia. His brother, Moses Belt, Jr., earned his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in medical anthropology, is Project Manager with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and holds joint appointments as Assistant Professor of Medical Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland.