David J. Leonard is Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman. He has written on sport, video games, film, and social movements, appearing in both popular and academic mediums. His work explores the political economy of popular culture, examining the interplay between racism, state violence, and popular representations through contextual, textual, and subtextual analysis. He is the author of Screens Fade to Black: Contemporary African American Cinema and the forthcoming After Artest: Race and the War on Hoop (SUNY Press). Leonard blogs @ No Tsuris.
A city person by nurture, David Leonard arrived in Pullman in 2002. Refusing to give up his love of the Los Angeles Lakers and diversity, David praises Pullman for its tranquility, cheap housing and lack of traffic. Born in Los Angeles, he struggled as a student until his 2nd year of college (“I received a 1.75 GPA as a first quarter freshman”). Finding his passion in Ethnic Studies and social justice at the expense of his hopeless football career, David graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Black Studies, eventually receiving his Ph.D. in Comparative Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002.
Outside the classroom, Dr. Leonard spends most of his time with his family – Rea is 7 and Sammy is 3 (4 in October). He also likes to cook and bake. When not spending time with his family and working, he spends his time working out, playing video games (its research), watching the NBA (its research) and watching TV and movies (yes research)
CES 101 