Entertainment and Media Studies welcomes three new faculty

The Department of Entertainment and Media Studies and Grady College are pleased to welcome three new faculty members in the 2020-2021 academic year.

The new faculty members include:

• Laurena Bernabo who assumes the role of assistant professor, EMST.
• Neil Landau who will serve as associate professor and director of the screenwriting program for the new Master of Fine Arts in Film, Television and Digital Media.
• Wunpini Mohammed who begins as assistant professor, EMST.

“Our new faculty invigorate us, and have been busily preparing for the semester ahead,” said Charles N. Davis, dean of Grady College. “They have embraced the spirit of the college already, and we’re all so happy for the infusion of vitality they bring.”

Laurena Bernabo

Laurena Bernabo joins the college faculty after serving as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Iowa and, more recently, Christopher Newport University. Her research specializes in the Spanish-language translation of popular U.S. television programs for Hispanic audiences, focusing on translation as texts that emphasize the construction of gender, race, sexuality and other forms of identity. Bernabo also studies the construction of these identities in U.S. programs, and she has presented her work at national and international conferences. Her research is published in peer-reviewed journals such as “Critical Studies in Media Communication” and “Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.”

Bernabo earned her doctorate and master’s degrees in Communications Studies from the University of Iowa, and a Bachelor of Arts in gender and women’s studies from the University of Illinois.

At Grady College, Bernabo will teach sections of Entertainment Media Industries, and Representation and Identity in Entertainment Media in her first semester.

More details can be found on Bernabo’s faculty profile webpage.

Neil Landau

Neil Landau joins the college as an associate professor and director of screenwriting in the new MFA program. Landau previously taught at the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television where he served as assistant dean and co-director of the graduate screenwriting program.

Landau is an award-winning screenwriter, including the prestigious Spanish Academy “Goya” Award for best adapted screenplay for “The Adventures of Tadeo Jones.”

He has written for many of the leading television and film companies such as ABC Family, MTV, Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures and 20^th Century Fox, just to name a few. His movie credits include the cult movie “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead,” and  television shows “Doogie Howser, MD” and “Melrose Place.” He is currently working as the executive producer for a mini-series entitled “Patient Zero,” the first program to explore the untold story of the AIDS crisis in the USSR in the 1980s and early 1990s. Landau is author of five books, including the bestselling “101 Things I Learned in Film School” (Grand Central Publishing, 2010, reissue by Random House/Crown in early 2021); and “The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap” (Focal Press, 2014; second edition to be published in 2021).

Landau earned an MFA in Narrative Media Writing, Screenwriting, from Grady College in 2018 and he has a Bachelor of Arts in film and television from UCLA.

More details can be found on Landau’s faculty profile webpage.

Wunpini Mohammed

Wunpini Mohammed joins UGA to teach courses in global media industries, a study of how media companies make and distribute content throughout the world.

Mohammed’s research focuses on Global South media industries, feminism, broadcast media and development communication and the challenge of power politics in media production, distribution and reception. Mohammed has presented her work at national and international conferences, and her research is published in peer reviewed journals such as “Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media,” “Communication: South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research” and “Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology.” She has a co-authored article forthcoming in the “Journal of Radio and Audio Media.”

Prior to pursuing a doctorate degree, Mohammed worked as a radio journalist for five years. She later worked in digital media writing where her work has been published on various African and international media platforms such as Al Jazeera and Global Voices

Mohammed earned her doctorate in mass communications from Pennsylvania State University. She also has a Master of Science in rhetoric and technical communication from Michigan Technological University; a Bachelor of Science in English and Spanish from the University of Ghana; and a diploma in Spanish grammar and literature from La Universidad de Cienfuegos “Carlos Rafael Rodriguez” in Cuba.

At Grady College, Mohammed will teach sections of Entertainment Media Analysis and International Media Entertainment.

More details can be found on Mohammed’s faculty profile webpage.