Murray Pomerance is a film scholar, author and Professor in the Department of Sociology and in the Joint Program in Communication and Culture at Ryerson University. Pomerance was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1946. He earned his BA from the University of Michigan and his MA from SUNY (Buffalo). Before coming to Ryerson, Pomerance worked as a teaching and research assistant at York University, Toronto, and studied at the New School for Social Research. He joined the faculty at Ryerson in 1976. In 1995, he was a co-founder (with John Sakeris) of the University's Media Studies Working Group and, from 1997 to 2005, was Chair of the Sociology Department. He has published extensively in the areas of cinema studies and performance, including contributions to The Paris Review, The Boston Review, Canadian Art, and Descant, and has authored, co-authored, or edited over 40 books, including: The Eyes Have it: Cinema and the Reality Effect (Rutgers, 2013); Popping Culture (seventh ed., Pearson, 2012); Michelangelo Red Antonioni Blue: Eight Reflections on Cinema (Rutgers 2008); Johnny Depp Starts Here (Rutgers, 2005); and An Eye for Hitchcock (Rutgers, 2004). Pomerance has also acted in, produced, and/or written a number of films and other media productions and has authored several works of fiction. He has received numerous awards and research grants throughout the course of his career. In 2000 and 2001, he was voted second best Professor in Toronto by readers of the Toronto-based weekly newspaper, Now Magazine. In 2004, he was awarded the Sarwan Sahota Distinguished Scholar Award for outstanding contributions to knowledge or artistic creativity and, in 2005, received a Ryerson Research Award.