BOOKS
2025
NOFX: Forty Years of “Problematic” Punk Provocations. Bernhard E., Morello, S., & Pearson, D. (Eds.). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
2019
Contemporary Punk Rock Communities: Scenes of Inclusion and Dedication. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.
PUBLICATIONS
2025
“From no future to nope, future: NOFX’s contradictory approaches to punk rock in perpetuity,” David Pearson, Stefano Morello, & Ellen Bernhard (Eds.). NOFX: Forty Years of “Problematic” Punk Provocations, Bloomsbury Academic.
“Introduction: So long and thanks for all the provocations,” with David Pearson and Stefano Morello, NOFX: Forty Years of “Problematic” Punk Provocations, Bloomsbury Academic.
2024
“‘…And out come the comps’: Punk-O-Rama, Pro Skater, and their roles as peak music experiences in a current punk identity,” Laura Way & Matt Grimes (Eds.). Punk, Ageing, and Time, Palgrave MacMillan, p. 53-70.
2023
Conspicuous co-optation: Exploring the subculture and pop culture connection at Gainesville’s Fest, Punk & Post-Punk, 12(3), 303-325.
The purpose of this study is to understand the subcultural and commercial overlap that exists in the physical signifiers conspicuously co-opted by attendees and artists at Fest, a punk rock festival held in Gainesville, Florida. Contemporary punk rock does not exist in an insular space, shielded from the influences of popular culture, current events and mass media. Rather, this intersection of subculture and popular culture offers valuable perspective on how punk fans’ relationship to commercial culture remains a significant influence in this space today. This participant observation study investigates the co-opted and reinvented signifiers evident in this subcultural space at the 2022 festival, looking at a range of festival elements such as band merchandise and performances as evidence of this phenomenon.
“Milo goes to college, Ellen goes to grad school: The series of events that turned an afterschool hobby into a hardcore pursuit of punk rock,” Konstantin Butz & Robert A. Winkler (Eds.). Hardcore Research: Punk, Practice, Politics, [transcript].
2022
Bad Religion and the burlesque: Framing extremist rhetoric in “The Kids are Alt-Right,” Rock Music Studies, 10(1).
The music video for Bad Religion’s 2018 satirical song, “The Kids are Alt-Right” is an appropriate text to be analyzed through Burke’s burlesque poetic category and Appel’s “five tokens of burlesque drama.” In calling attention to this growing ideological threat, Bad Religion frames the alt-right as a movement that identifies progressivism, technology, and minorities as enemies to their populist message. “Alt-Right” portrays the movement’s participants as having been indoctrinated into an ideological system that has been adapted for the 21st century, resulting in a cautionary tale of a violent effort without redemption, one destined for destruction.
2020
“I thought it was a very punk rock thing to say”: NOFX’s (sort-of) public apology and (in)civility in defining contemporary punk rock in online spaces, Punk & Post-Punk, 9:1, 7-22.
As a music genre built on the foundations of questioning the status quo, punk rock has a long history of generating controversy. While many of punk rock’s offensive moments have been accepted and applauded by fans around the world, NOFX’s comments at the 2018 Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival about the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting were met with immediate consequences for the band, who lost several sponsorships and the ability to play their own Camp Punk in Drublic music festival one week following the incident. After footage of the band’s comments circulated, they were met with a mixed, yet heated, response from fans, with much of the conversation arguing whether or not what was said could be considered ‘punk’. Some argued these comments further solidified the band’s reputation as a punk band and are therefore imbued with an inherent right to offend, while others believed these comments were unethical, poorly timed, and pushed the boundaries of appropriateness. Through the analysis of 381 comments in response to the band’s 31 May 2018 post on their official Facebook page, this article investigates the uncivil and civil discussions of the incident and the subsequent aftermath, while also addressing the broader conversation surrounding the current ethos of punk rock within the scene in the United States today.
2018
“It feels like summer in October”: A study of Gainesville’s Fest, Punk & Post-Punk, 7:2, 235-247.
The purpose of this article is to analyse the data collected from ten in-depth inter- views with participants who attend Fest. Fest is a punk-centric music festival that has taken place in Gainesville, Florida since 2002 and draws fans from around the globe who attend to see over 300 punk bands perform in a dozen venues through- out the city. The literature applied to this study focused on the significance of music scenes and experience economies as they relate to Fest and the festival-attending experience. Interviews were conducted with participants who attend Fest regularly, or perform in bands that have played Fest in recent years. Data collected from these interviews confirmed participants’ motivations for attending the festival, while examining the specific characteristics of Fest that influence participants to return year after year. Participants also commented on the community-building aspect of Fest, which was often viewed as a significant incentive for participants who attend.
2016
McClain, J.M., & Bernhard, E.M. “Against the Grain”: How music journalism frames Bad Religion as unconventional, Rock Music Studies, 3:3, 300-312.
REVIEWS
2025
Interview: “I heard they suck at interviews (but we edited it for clarity): A conversation with Fat Mike of NOFX, with Fields, P. & Morello, S. Punk & Post-Punk.
2022
Punk Gender and Ageing: Just Typical Girls? Punk & Post-Punk, 11(1), 119-121.
2021
Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion, Punk & Post Punk, 10:2, 320-323.
2020
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, Explorations in Media Ecology, 19:2, 225-228.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Books: The History and Future of Reading, Explorations in Media Ecology, 19:1, 113-115.
2018
Conference Review: Punk as Archival Method, February 9-10, University of California, Los Angeles, Punk & Post-Punk, 7:2, 291-300.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
2014
“Roundtable Discussion: Green Day’s American Idiot,” Anne Cecil (Ed.). The Mid Atlantic Almanack: The Journal of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association, 163-169.
Ellen Bernhard 