Bernadette Marie Calafell is the inaugural Chair and Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at Gonzaga University and Editor of the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, a journal of the National Communication Association. Bernadette earned a Ph.D. in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Performance Studies, and Queer Latinx Performance in particular, from the University of North Carolina. She received her B.A. and M.A. in Communication Studies from the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.
Her research is focused on women of color feminisms, queer of color theory, Latina/o/x Studies, monstrosity, horror, performance studies and critical rhetoric. She has published articles in several journal including Text and Performance Quarterly, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, The Communication Review, Communication, Culture, and Critique, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Voces: A Journal of Chicana and Latina Studies (Now Chicana/Latina Studies), Latino Studies, Review of Communication, and the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication. Her book Latina/o Communication Studies: Theorizing Performance was published by Peter Lang in 2007 as part of the series on Critical Intercultural Communication edited by Dr. Thomas Nakayama. In 2015 she published Monstrosity, Performance, and Race in Contemporary Culture. She has also co-edited several books.
Bernadette teaches courses such as Hip-Hop Feminisms, Queer of Color Theory, Monstrosity and Race, Automethodologies, Intersectionality in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Race and Popular Culture, and Introduction to Race and Ethnic Studies. She also worked with doctoral students at the University of Denver, where she was previously employed for thirteen years. She saw twenty-three doctoral students to completion.
