Caren Kaplan is professor emerita of American Studies at

University of California at Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institution was ...

, and a figure in the academic discipline of

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

. Together with Inderpal Grewal, Kaplan has worked as a founder of the field of transnational feminist

cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

transnational feminism Transnational feminism refers to both a contemporary feminist paradigm and the corresponding activist movement. Both the theories and activist practices are concerned with how globalization and capitalism affect people across nations, races, g ...

Career

Kaplan is a proponent of the

digital humanities Digital humanities (DH) is an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or Information technology, digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanitie ...

and has turned the critical lens of

upon topics such as travel, visual culture, militarization and the construction of consumer subjects. Her book ''Questions of Travel'' is about the development of a social science attentive to the role of travel and mobility in everyday life and contemporary culture. Along with figures such as Lisa Parks, Kaplan has expanded feminist studies of technology and infrastructure through her work on aerial imagery and mapping, the

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide ge ...

(GPS), and the rise of drones and remote sensing technologies in warfare and policing. Kaplan graduated from

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...

in 1977 with a degree in social theory and received her Ph.D. in 1987 from the

History of Consciousness History of Consciousness is the name of a department in the Humanities Division of the University of California, Santa Cruz with a 50+ year history of interdisciplinary research and student training in "established and emergent disciplines and fi ...

program at the

University of California at Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay, ...

. She wrote her dissertation, ''The Poetics of Displacement: Exile, Immigration, and Travel in Contemporary Autobiographical Writing'', under the direction of James Clifford,

Donna Haraway Donna Jeanne Haraway (born September 6, 1944) is an American professor emerita in the history of consciousness and feminist studies departments at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a prominent scholar in the field of science and te ...

, and

Teresa de Lauretis Teresa de Lauretis (; born 1938, Bologna) is an Italian author and Distinguished Professor Emerita of the History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her areas of interest include semiotics, psychoanalysis, film theory, ...

. Before accepting her position at UC Davis, Kaplan held teaching appointments at the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

and

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

. In 2006–2007, she won the Digital Innovation Fellowship from the

American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...

. Kaplan was the founder of the Designated Emphasis on Women, Gender and Sexuality at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

when she was a professor there and influenced scholars such as Mimi Thi Nguyen, Vernadette Vicuna Gonzalez, and

Jasbir Puar Jasbir K. Puar (born 1967) is an American academic and author. She is Professor and Graduate Director of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. Her most recent book is ''The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability'' (2017). Sh ...

. At UC Davis, Kaplan founded the interdisciplinary Critical Militarization, Policing, and Security Studies (CRTMIL), a working group for the study of emergent and everyday practices and technologies of state power. There she influenced scholars such as Toby Beauchamp, Liz Montegary, Abigail Boggs, Tristan Josephson, and Andrea Miller.

Notes

Books

*Caren Kaplan, ''Aerial Aftermaths: Wartime from Above'', Duke University Press, 2017. * Lisa Parks and Caren Kaplan, ''Life in the Age of Drone Warfare'', Duke University Press, 2017. *Caren Kaplan, ''Questions of Travel: Postmodern Discourses of Displacement'', Duke University Press, 1996. *Caren Kaplan and Inderpal Grewal, ''An Introduction to Women's Studies: Gender in a Transnational World'', McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, September 25, 2001 (Second edition 2005) *Caren Kaplan, Norma Alarcón and Minoo Moallem. ''Between Woman and Nation: Transnational Feminisms and the State'', Duke University Press, 1999. *Caren Kaplan and Inderpal Grewal, ''Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices'', (University of Minnesota Press, 1994)

Caren Kaplan multimedia projects

Dead Reckoning: Aerial Perception and the Social Construction of Targets

External links

CAREN KAPLAN: EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED: AERIAL PERSPECTIVES, THE REVOLUTIONCaren Kaplan
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Caren University of California, Davis faculty Living people American academics of women's studies Year of birth missing (living people) University of California, Santa Cruz alumni