Daniel Bernardi
Encyclopedia
Daniel Bernardi is Professor and Chair of the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University
(SFSU). Bernardi earned a Bachelor of Arts in Radio-TV (1984) and a Masters of Arts in Media Arts (1988) from the University of Arizona
. He went on to earn a PhD in Film and Television Studies
from UCLA (1994). His main academic interests are: media studies
, cultural studies
, narrative theory, and rumors as narrative IEDS. His work in media, which is perhaps most known, emphasizes whiteness
as a historical formation of meanings. Borrowing from Michael Omi and Howard Winant's theory of racial formation, he argues that whiteness is a historically powerful set of meanings that serves to either implicitly or explicitly dominate the shifting and reforming meaning of race in U.S. media.
at UCLA (1999 and 2000), UC Riverside (1997–1998), the University of Arizona (1999–2004), Arizona State University (2004–2011), and SFSU
(2011-Present). He was awarded a Ford Foundation
Dissertation Followship (1994), a UC President's Post-Doctoral Fellowship (1995–1997), and a Fulbright Fellowship (2009). He declined the Fulbright Fellowship. From 1998 to 2000, he worked for the Sci-Fi Channel as a consultant, writer and producer/host of the web feature Future Now (since deleted).
Bernardi is also an officer in the United States Navy Reserves
. He has served at sea on the USS Coronado
, the USS John C. Stennis, the USS Blue Ridge
, and the USS Cleveland
(LPD7), as well as at shore in Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and at the Pentagon with the Chief of Navy Information. From May 2009 to February 2010 he was recalled to Active Duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In Iraq, Bernardi served with US Special Forces as the Public Affairs Officer for Special Operations Task Force-Central
, where he trained Iraqi Special Operations Forces
(ISOF) and Emergency Response Brigade (ERB) Soldiers on combat camera and media operations. He also managed US media embeds, including CNN, NBC and AP, and US Army and US Navy journalists and photographers. In 2011 he returned to Active Duty for nine months and served as the Mission Public Affairs Officer for Pacific Partnership 2011
, an annual humanitarian assistance initiative sponsored by the U.S. Pacific Fleet
. Bernardi managed a team of military (U.S., Australian and New Zealand) and NGO (Project Hope) photographers, videographers and writers assigned to document and report on the mission.
Bernardi and his co-authors characterize rumors as bits and pieces of prevailing narrative systems and local cultural artifacts, and that their anonymous origin and dubious truth claims afford them a type of concealment until their effects are known and the damage is done. Focusing on the impact of rumors on counterinsurgency operations (Iraq), counter terrorism whisper campaigns (Indonesia), and civil disobedience online (Singapore), they argue that rumors are narrative IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Device, in that they’re constructed of locally available materials and hidden in the landscape until detonation. Bernardi and his co-authors see rumors as similarly ad hoc, constructed of bits and pieces of narrative systems, and lying unseen to the military information operator, diplomat, civic outreach coordinator, or business strategist until exploding and disrupting expensive and highly wrought communication campaigns.
Bernardi traces the shifting and reforming meaning of race articulated throughout the Star Trek
television series, feature films, and fan community, investigating and, in his word, "politicizing" the presentation of race in Star Trek in the original series of the 1960s, the feature films and television spin-offs of the 1980s and 1990s, and the current fan community on the Internet. Through both critical and historical analysis, he proposes a method of studying the framing of race in popular film and television that integrates sociology
, critical theory
and cultural studies
. Bernardi goes on to examine the representational and narrative functions of race in Star Trek and explores how the meaning of "race" in the science fiction series has been facilitated or constrained by creative and network decision-making, by genre, by intertextuality
, and by fans. He interprets how the changing social and political movements of the times have influenced the production and meaning of "Trek" texts and the ways in which the ongoing series negotiated and reflected these turbulent histories. Unpopular with many Trekkers, Star Trek and History went into a second printing after a year of its original publication.
In these books, Bernardi relies on a range of scholars to show how race in general and whiteness in particular formed unique representational, narrational, and institutional patterns across U.S. film history. The introductions to each book set out a broad theory of whiteness in American film that, in brief, positions whiteness as a performance about who passes and who doesn't pass as white — and what it means in specific films and periods of film history to either pass or not pass as white. The last book in the series, Filming Difference, includes essays and interviews by filmmakers who address critically and creatively how they go about representing race, gender and sexuality in their work. .
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
(SFSU). Bernardi earned a Bachelor of Arts in Radio-TV (1984) and a Masters of Arts in Media Arts (1988) from the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
. He went on to earn a PhD in Film and Television Studies
Television studies
Television studies is an academic discipline that deals with critical approaches to television. Usually, it is distinguished from mass-communication research, which tends to approach the topic from an empirical perspective...
from UCLA (1994). His main academic interests are: media studies
Media studies
Media studies is an academic discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history and effects of various media; in particular, the 'mass media'. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass...
, cultural studies
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
, narrative theory, and rumors as narrative IEDS. His work in media, which is perhaps most known, emphasizes whiteness
Whiteness studies
Whiteness studies is an interdisciplinary arena of academic inquiry focused on the cultural, historical and sociological aspects of people identified as white, and the social construction of whiteness as an ideology tied to social status...
as a historical formation of meanings. Borrowing from Michael Omi and Howard Winant's theory of racial formation, he argues that whiteness is a historically powerful set of meanings that serves to either implicitly or explicitly dominate the shifting and reforming meaning of race in U.S. media.
Career
Bernardi has taught film, television and new mediaNew media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
at UCLA (1999 and 2000), UC Riverside (1997–1998), the University of Arizona (1999–2004), Arizona State University (2004–2011), and SFSU
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
(2011-Present). He was awarded a Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
Dissertation Followship (1994), a UC President's Post-Doctoral Fellowship (1995–1997), and a Fulbright Fellowship (2009). He declined the Fulbright Fellowship. From 1998 to 2000, he worked for the Sci-Fi Channel as a consultant, writer and producer/host of the web feature Future Now (since deleted).
Bernardi is also an officer in the United States Navy Reserves
United States Navy Reserve
The United States Navy Reserve, until 2005 known as the United States Naval Reserve, is the Reserve Component of the United States Navy...
. He has served at sea on the USS Coronado
USS Coronado
USS Coronado may refer to:, a patrol frigate, served in World War II as a convoy escort., an auxiliary command ship, hosted the Navy's Sea Based Battle Lab ., the fourth littoral combat ship named on 12 March 2009...
, the USS John C. Stennis, the USS Blue Ridge
USS Blue Ridge
USS Blue Ridge may refer to:, was originally constructed as the Great Lakes passenger steamer Virginia and was in service for less than a year during 1918, was an amphibious force flagship, and served from 1943 to 1947, is a command and control ship, currently serving as the Seventh Fleet command...
, and the USS Cleveland
USS Cleveland
USS Cleveland may refer to: was a protected cruiser commissioned in 1903 and scrapped in 1930 was a light cruiser commissioned in 1942 and active in World War II is an amphibious transport dock commissioned in 1967 and decommissioned in 2011See also...
(LPD7), as well as at shore in Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and at the Pentagon with the Chief of Navy Information. From May 2009 to February 2010 he was recalled to Active Duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In Iraq, Bernardi served with US Special Forces as the Public Affairs Officer for Special Operations Task Force-Central
Iraqi Special Operations Forces
Iraqi Special Operations Forces refers to the Iraqi special forces unit created by Coalition forces after the 2003 invasion. As of November 2009, the forces, directed by the Iraqi Counter-Terrorist Bureau, consist of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorist Command, which has two brigades subordinate to it...
, where he trained Iraqi Special Operations Forces
Iraqi Special Operations Forces
Iraqi Special Operations Forces refers to the Iraqi special forces unit created by Coalition forces after the 2003 invasion. As of November 2009, the forces, directed by the Iraqi Counter-Terrorist Bureau, consist of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorist Command, which has two brigades subordinate to it...
(ISOF) and Emergency Response Brigade (ERB) Soldiers on combat camera and media operations. He also managed US media embeds, including CNN, NBC and AP, and US Army and US Navy journalists and photographers. In 2011 he returned to Active Duty for nine months and served as the Mission Public Affairs Officer for Pacific Partnership 2011
Pacific Partnership
Pacific Partnership is an annual deployment of forces from the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy , in cooperation with regional governments and military forces, along with humanitarian and non-government organizations....
, an annual humanitarian assistance initiative sponsored by the U.S. Pacific Fleet
United States Pacific Fleet
The United States Pacific Fleet is a Pacific Ocean theater-level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval resources under the operational control of the United States Pacific Command. Its home port is at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii. It is commanded by Admiral Patrick M...
. Bernardi managed a team of military (U.S., Australian and New Zealand) and NGO (Project Hope) photographers, videographers and writers assigned to document and report on the mission.
As author
- Explosive Narratives: Rumors, Islamist Extremism and the Struggle for Strategic Influence (co-authored). 2012. Rutgers University Press.
Bernardi and his co-authors characterize rumors as bits and pieces of prevailing narrative systems and local cultural artifacts, and that their anonymous origin and dubious truth claims afford them a type of concealment until their effects are known and the damage is done. Focusing on the impact of rumors on counterinsurgency operations (Iraq), counter terrorism whisper campaigns (Indonesia), and civil disobedience online (Singapore), they argue that rumors are narrative IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Device, in that they’re constructed of locally available materials and hidden in the landscape until detonation. Bernardi and his co-authors see rumors as similarly ad hoc, constructed of bits and pieces of narrative systems, and lying unseen to the military information operator, diplomat, civic outreach coordinator, or business strategist until exploding and disrupting expensive and highly wrought communication campaigns.
- Star Trek and History: Race-ing Toward a White Future. 1998. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813524660
Bernardi traces the shifting and reforming meaning of race articulated throughout the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
television series, feature films, and fan community, investigating and, in his word, "politicizing" the presentation of race in Star Trek in the original series of the 1960s, the feature films and television spin-offs of the 1980s and 1990s, and the current fan community on the Internet. Through both critical and historical analysis, he proposes a method of studying the framing of race in popular film and television that integrates sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, critical theory
Critical theory
Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
and cultural studies
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
. Bernardi goes on to examine the representational and narrative functions of race in Star Trek and explores how the meaning of "race" in the science fiction series has been facilitated or constrained by creative and network decision-making, by genre, by intertextuality
Intertextuality
Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined...
, and by fans. He interprets how the changing social and political movements of the times have influenced the production and meaning of "Trek" texts and the ways in which the ongoing series negotiated and reflected these turbulent histories. Unpopular with many Trekkers, Star Trek and History went into a second printing after a year of its original publication.
As editor
- The Birth of Whiteness: Race and the Emergence of U.S. Cinema. 1996. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813522765
- Classic Hollywood/Classic Whiteness. 2001. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0816632391
- The Persistance of Whiteness. 2007. Routledge. ISBN 0415774128
- Filming Difference: Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers on Gender, Race and Sexuality in Film. 2009. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292719744
In these books, Bernardi relies on a range of scholars to show how race in general and whiteness in particular formed unique representational, narrational, and institutional patterns across U.S. film history. The introductions to each book set out a broad theory of whiteness in American film that, in brief, positions whiteness as a performance about who passes and who doesn't pass as white — and what it means in specific films and periods of film history to either pass or not pass as white. The last book in the series, Filming Difference, includes essays and interviews by filmmakers who address critically and creatively how they go about representing race, gender and sexuality in their work. .