Sheila Curran Bernard
MFA, Goddard College
BS, Boston University
About
Sheila Curran Bernard is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker with credits on nearly 50 hours of prime-time broadcast, theatrical and giant screen programming. She is also the author of books including Documentary Storytelling, now going into its sixth edition and widely translated, and, with Kenn Rabin, Archival Storytelling, now in its second edition.
Bernard’s most recent book is Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly’s Truths from Jim Crow’s Lies (Cambridge University Press, 2024), the untold story of an American musical legend (1889-1949) and a case study in crime, punishment and systemic racism. In 2005, Bernard served as the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies at Princeton University, and in 2008, joined the faculty at the University at Albany.
Research
Sheila Curran Bernard on Google Scholar
Research Interests
United States 19th and 20th century history; African American history; public history; nonfiction narrative; documentary media; creative writing. My most recent book is Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly’s Truths from Jim Crow’s Lies (Cambridge University Press, 2024), a finalist for a 2025 Jazz Journalism Association Award. Currently, I’m working on a sixth edition of Documentary Storytelling, looking at how technology, streaming, AI and other factors are having an impact on ethical and effective nonfiction media storytelling. I’m also completing two archival projects, one an oral history of DeKalb, Texas, during the first half of the 20th century, and the other photo documentation of Satawal, a coral atoll in Micronesia, in the 1980s.
Instruction & Advising
Courses
Undergraduate Courses
- HIS/DOC 224: Narrative and Historical Media
- HIS/DOC 227: Civil Rights: A Documentary Approach
- HIS/DOC 335: History and Theory of the Documentary Film
- HIS 290/390: Topics in U.S. History
- DOC 290/390: Topics in Documentary Studies
- HIS/DOC 412: Readings Practicum in Nonfiction Media Storytelling
- DOC 450: Documentary Studies Seminar and Fieldwork Practicum
Graduate Courses
- HIS 500: Practicum/Writing the Successful Proposal
- HIS 501: Introduction to Public History
- HIS 602: Readings in Visual Media and Culture
- HIS 605: Readings in the History and Theory of Historical Documentary Filmmaking
- HIS 607: Seminar and Practicum in History and Media
- HIS 612 (as 530): Readings Practicum in Historical Media Storytelling
- HIS 642: Readings in Culture and Society
Additional Information
Awards & Honors
- SUNY Chancellor’s Award and the University at Albany President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Service and for Excellence in Scholarship & Creative Activities
- Awarded residencies at MacDowell and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
- Geri Ashur fellowship in playwriting/screenwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts
- National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award 2021, support for Bring Judgment Day