A graduate of Yale University's doctoral program in American Studies, Bernstein focuses on U.S. cultural history with an emphasis on theatre and performance, as well as literature, material culture, and race. Her articles have appeared in Modern Drama, the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and elsewhere. In 2006, the University of Michigan Press published her edited anthology, Cast Out: Queer Lives in Theatre. With support from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the American Antiquarian Society, Bernstein is currently completing a book manuscript titled Racial Innocence: Performing Childhood and Race from Uncle Tom's Cabin to the New Negro Movement.