Darnell M. Hunt doesn't look like your typical college professor.

Mostly it's because, whether he's wearing a suit or a polo shirt and jeans, his physical stature is imposing. But when asked about his exercise regimen, UCLA's new director of the Center for African American Studies (CAAS) laughed. He doesn't go to the gym as often as people think he does, Hunt noted.

He admitted, however, that working out at the gym helps him think. While pumping iron, he composes paragraphs in his head and comes up with new ideas. Judging from the fact that Hunt is one of the most highly regarded young sociologists in the country, his method of mental calisthenics could catch on.

As director of CAAS, Hunt will plot the course of the prominent national center, one of the first research centers devoted to African-American studies. "One of the biggest challenges before us today is to rearticulate the role of African-American studies in an increasingly diverse society," he said.

To address this challenge, Hunt plans research and symposia on subjects such as prime-time television representations of African Americans, tracing the economic benefits of slavery and understanding contemporary African-American poverty.

During an open house and reception today, from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., Hunt, and the center's new location in Haines Hall, will be introduced to the campus and the Los Angeles community.

A Washington, D.C., native, Hunt first came to California as an undergraduate journalism student at USC. He received a fellowship for an M.B.A. at Georgetown University and went to work for NBC as a management associate at WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.

Later, Hunt returned to California and received his Ph.D. in 1994 from UCLA's sociology department. He spent seven years at USC, where he served as chair of its sociology department and director of its African-American studies program. Hunt's wife, Angela James, an assistant professor of sociology at USC, is now completing postdoctoral work at UCLA. The couple met here as graduate students in UCLA's sociology department; today, they keep extremely busy with their research and their active, 3 1/2-year-old twins.

An expert in media and communication studies, race relations and the sociology of culture, and the author of two scholarly books on the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the O.J. Simpson trial, Hunt observed that while progress in the city has been made, "there are major enduring problems of inequality, increasing class gaps and differences that are still unresolved that played a major role in 1992," he said. "The potential is always there for that to occur if the underlying conditions aren't addressed."