ERIC PIERSON is a Professor of Communication and the director of the Film Studies minor at the University of San Diego. He has been on the faculty of the USD for over 25 years and during that time he has developed a number of courses on cinema. Among the courses he has developed are Film and Cultural Politics, Documentary Film and American Independent Film, which is taught on-site during the Sundance film Festival.

Expanding media literacy is the philosophical glue that holds together Professor Pierson’s multiple strands of scholarly and creative work. His work on black images and audiences has appeared in Beyond Blaxploitation: Documenting the Black Experience, Screening Noir, the Journal of Mass Media Ethics and Watching While Black: Centering the Television of Black Audiences. He strives to create work that reflect academic rigor while also being accessible to those outside of the university setting. Professor Pierson’s work can be found in a wide variety of venues as he strives to reach diverse audiences, some of the venues where you find his work are academic journals, edited book collections, film festival panels, and museum exhibits.

Eric holds two degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a BFA in Fine Arts and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Communications Research.