Guide to the Caren Kaplan papers, 1968–2022

John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148
Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Published in 2022

Collection Overview

Title:	Caren Kaplan papers
Date range:	1968–2022
Creator:	Kaplan, Caren
Extent:	6 linear feet (5 record center cartons and 2 file boxes)
Abstract:	Caren Kaplan is Professor of American Studies and affiliated faculty in Cultural Studies and Science and Technology Studies at University of California, Davis. She has been a leading scholar of Transnational feminism, Postcolonial theory, and Militarization Studies. This collection includes correspondence related to Kaplan's academics, professional career, writings, and talks; papers from her undergraduate and graduate education; conference materials; syllabi and lecture notes; and draft writings. Materials date from 1968 – 2022.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Collection number:	MS.2022.007

Scope & content

Caren Kaplan is Professor of American Studies and affiliated faculty in Cultural Studies and Science and Technology Studies at University of California, Davis. She has been a leading scholar of Transnational feminism, Postcolonial theory, and Militarization Studies. This collection includes correspondence related to Kaplan's academics, professional career, writings, and talks; papers from her undergraduate and graduate education; conference materials; syllabi and lecture notes; and draft writings. Materials date from 1968 – 2022 and are arranged into 6 series.

*Please note that Kaplan included an "Annotated index to contents" located in box 1 folder 1. This document is arranged chronologically and corresponds to Kaplan's original folder titles. The processor kept all original folders with their original contents so that researchers can easily locate annotations. Annotations include personal reflections, event details, and contextual information related to Kaplan's personal life and professional career. Particularly significant annotations have been noted in the inventory of this finding aid.

Series 1, PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, 1980 – 2022, includes the "Annotated index to contents," CVs, and letters of recommendation for Kaplan. Also included is a file related to memorializing Professor Lester Mazor, Kaplan's mentor, who later became the subject of controversy at Hampshire College. Kaplan includes her reflections on this issue on page 32 of the "Annotated index to contents." This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.

Series 2, EDUCATION FILES, 1968 – 1989, includes correspondence, funding applications, syllabi, and papers written by Kaplan for her undergraduate education at Hampshire College and her graduate education at University of California, Santa Cruz. Of particular interest is a paper handwritten by Kaplan in secondary school regarding "The Chicago Police and the Democratic Convention." Note that the "Annotated index to contents" located in box 1 folder 1 includes detailed descriptions of Kaplan's experiences at Hampshire College and UC Santa Cruz. This series is arranged alphabetically by institution then by record type.

Series 3, ADMINISTRATIVE AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT, 1985 – 2019, includes job applications and correspondence regarding Kaplan's hiring, retention, and merit promotions. Of note are graduation remarks written by Kaplan for the University of California Berkeley Women's Studies Department in 1993, 1995, 1999, and 2001. This series is arranged alphabetically by institution then by record type.

Series 4, CONFERENCES, 1979 – 2001, includes correspondence, handwritten notes, programs, and talk drafts for various conferences. Please note that additional talk drafts are located in Series 6, Writings and Related. Conferences include "Atmospheric Politics: Asymmetrical Warfare from Above," "Between Women and Nation: Feminism and Global Issues," "Digital Legacies of the War on Terror," and "Warfare and Healthcare: Action at a Distance and Bodies in Contact." This series is arranged alphabetically by conference title and then by record type.

Series 5, TEACHING MATERIALS, 1987 – 2019, contains syllabi, assignment prompts, and handwritten and typed lecture notes for courses taught by Kaplan. Course titles include "The Arts of War: Military Culture, Media, and Technology," "Introduction to Women's Studies," "Questions of Travel: Exploration, Expatriation, Immigration, and the Poetics of Displacement," and "Travel, Gender, and Empire." This series is arranged alphabetically by course title then by record type.

Series 6, WRITINGS AND RELATED, 1984 – 2020, includes correspondence, handwritten notes, typed drafts, and proofs of articles, books, chapters, and talks by Kaplan. Titles include An Introduction to Women's Studies: Gender in a Transnational World, Life in the Age of Drone Warfare, "Atmospheric Policing in the Age of Drone Warfare: Attunements to Colonial World-Making," "Mobile Subjects: Aerial Perception, Air Power, and the Social Construction of Targets," and "Whiteness and Commodity Feminism in a Transnational Frame." Note that box 7 folder 22 also includes a handwritten journal entry written by Kaplan as she grappled with leaving her newborn child with her partner in order to attend the talk also included in the folder. This series is arranged alphabetically by format then by title then by record type.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Grewal, Inderpal

Subject Organizations

• Feminist Theory Archive.
• Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women.

Subject Topics

• Aerial photography.
• Critical theory.
• Drone aircraft -- Government policy.
• Drone aircraft -- Moral and ethical aspects.
• Feminist theory
• Gender studies
• Military photography.
• Photographic surveying.
• Science and technology studies
• Transnationalism.
• War photography.
• War on Terrorism, 2001-2009
• Women's Studies

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into 6 series

• Series 1. Personal and Biographical
• Series 2. Education Files
• Series 3. Administrative and Career Development
• Series 4. Conferences
• Series 5. Teaching Materials
• Series 6. Writings and Related

Biographical/Historical Note

Caren Kaplan provided the following first-person biographical note that is included here in italics. The original statement is located in the "Annotated index to contents" found in box 1 folder 1 of the collection.

I was born in 1955 in Ithaca, NY. My father, Arthur Kaplan, was completing his PhD in Psychology at Cornell University. My mother, Doris Flax Kaplan, was a home economist and nutritionist. After a short stint in St. Louis, Missouri, we moved to Bangor, Maine, where my father ran the first community mental health services and then a few miles down the road to Orono, Maine, when my father took a position as a professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Maine (his alma mater). My mother got an MA in library science and worked at the university library in the reference department. I lived with my parents and younger brother in Orono, on the ancestral land of the Penobscot Wabanaki people, until I left for college in Massachusetts.

We were among the few Jewish families in our town and experienced casual as well as organized anti-Semitism. My parents were progressive liberals and belonged to the local chapter of the NAACP in the 1960s. My mother took us to anti-war rallies on campus. Family friends included many international faculty, and we regularly visited family in New York. When I was in high school I was very serious about studying dance and art. Feminism was in the air. I attended a talk by Robin Morgan on the UM campus when she was on the circuit after the publication of Sisterhood is Powerful and founded a feminist "support group" in my high school. I subscribed to Ms. magazine and bought the first newsprint edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves (the subject of avid discussion in our high school support group). I was a classic "second wave" feminist until I reached college and graduate school and began to absorb critiques of the white and US exceptionalism of some parts of that movement. Summer jobs as a "downstairs" maid on coastal estates and as a waitress informed my class analysis through direct experience. I was fortunate to participate in the American Field Service (AFS) summer program in between junior and senior year in high school and I was assigned to live with a family in Istanbul, Turkey. This was a transformative experience—the first time I had traveled outside of the United States and the first time I had lived in a city. My parents were the children of immigrants from eastern Europe and the first members of their families to attend university and they instilled in me a deep respect for learning and for public education. Although I attended a private college myself (probably thanks to my mother's advocacy), public education could have been said to be our family's true "religion" and my father was markedly disappointed when I accepted my first job at Georgetown University. I had let him down. Fortunately, I redeemed myself when I moved to the University of California system.

After completing her PhD in the History of Consciousness program at University of California, Santa Cruz, Caren Kaplan began her career in the English Department at Georgetown University. She continued in the Women's Studies Department at University of California, Berkeley before moving to University of California, Davis in 2004. She retired from UC Davis in 2019 as Professor of American Studies and affiliated faculty in Cultural Studies and Science and Technology Studies.

Kaplan has been a leading scholar of Transnational feminism, Postcolonial theory, and Militarization Studies. She is the author and editor of six books and numerous highly influential essays and articles. Her work has been translated into Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Arabic. In addition to American Studies, Kaplan has been affiliated with Women and Gender Studies, Science and Technology Studies, Cinema and Technocultural Studies, the DE's in Feminist Theory & Research, Critical Theory, Performance Studies, and Writing, Rhetoric, and Composition. She also served for two terms as Chair of the Cultural Studies Graduate Group.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Use of the materials:	All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the John Hay Library are requested to complete a Notice of Intent to Publish, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Caren Kaplan papers, MS.2022.007, Feminist Theory Archive, Brown University Library.
Contact information:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148 Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	Gift of Caren Kaplan in 2022.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Amanda Knox on behalf of the Pembroke Center for the Teaching and Research on Women and the Brown University Library.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2022-08-02.
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
Sponsor:	Curatorial work and processing provided by the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women on behalf of the Feminist Theory Archive, Brown University Library.

Additional Information

Related material:

See also the Inderpal Grewal papers, Ms.2018.016, Feminist Theory Archive, Brown University Library.

Inventory

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