Dr. Bell has served as the Director of the Center for Excellence in Communication and an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs since the summer of 2010. He earned his B.A. in Social Science from the University of Northern Colorado, his M.A. in Television, Film and New Media Production from San Diego State University, and his Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Bell specializes in the study of popular culture, focusing on the ways in which race, class and gender intersect in different forms of media. Dr. Bell's primary research areas are young adult culture, comic books, celebrity culture and reality television. He serves as the chair of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association's Harry Potter Studies division. Dr. Bell is the author of American Idolatry: Celebrity, Commodity and Reality Television (McFarland 2010) and Hermione Granger Saves the World!: Essays on the Feminist Heroine of Hogwarts (McFarland 2012).