About
Robin Bernstein is the Dillon Professor of American History and holds additional professorships in African and African American Studies and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. She chairs the doctoral Program in American Studies and is a faculty member in the undergraduate Theater, Dance, and Media program. Her research focuses on the intersections of race, performance, and childhood in U.S. cultural history, emphasizing how racial hierarchies were constructed through representations of innocence and material culture.
Dr. Bernstein earned her PhD in American Studies from Yale University and is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society. She has held prestigious fellowships, including a 2018–2019 Humanities Fellowship at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute. Her academic accolades include the Harvard College Professorship for distinguished undergraduate teaching and the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award (2021).
Her work integrates performance studies with literary and visual analysis, exploring ‘scriptive things’ like dolls, toys, and theatrical props that shape racial and social identities. Recent projects include Freeman’s Challenge, a narrative history examining 19th-century racial formations through a true crime lens, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Radcliffe Institute. Her earlier book Racial Innocence won five awards and is celebrated for its interdisciplinary approach, contextualizing childhood innocence as a racialized construct.
- Edits the Performance and American Cultures book series for NYU Press
- Writes academic advice columns for Chronicle of Higher Education
- Published opinion pieces in New York Times and Harvard Magazine
- Recipient of multiple radio interview invitations discussing her work (see detailed radio section)
Her teaching philosophy emphasizes undergraduate engagement and innovative pedagogy, while her mentorship has been recognized for fostering graduate student success. Ongoing research projects include the forgotten slave narrative of Jane Clark, contextualized in Commonplace, and exploring transnational childhood histories through digital and traditional platforms.
