Skip to main content
Appalachian Today
News and events at Appalachian State University
  • For the media
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Galleries
  • In the Media
  • Grants
  • Speakers
  • All Posts
  • Topics
  • Accolades
  • Alumni
  • Arts and Humanities
  • Athletics
  • Awards and Honors
  • Community Engagement
  • Diversity
  • Events
  • Faculty and Staff
  • Gifts and Grants
  • Global
  • Health and Wellness
  • Publications
  • Research
  • Safety
  • Scholarships
  • Students
  • Sustainability
☰ Menu
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Galleries
  • In the Media
  • Grants
  • Speakers
  • All Posts
  • Topics
  • For the media
  • Archives
  • Contact
View larger image

Ann Pegelow Kaplan; Passages (Museumsinsel) (detail).

Ann Pegelow Kaplan, interdisciplinary scholar and artist

“…Too often, both locally and globally, digital worlds replicate and reinforce ‘real world’ inequalities… but spaces are available to intervene in and re-imagine digital technologies and their impacts.”

Ann Pegelow Kaplan on students’ observations after completing her Digital Gender class

View larger image

Ann Pegelow Kaplan.

By University Communications
Posted May 4, 2017 at 2:23 p.m.

Ann Pegelow Kaplan, assistant professor in the Department of Cultural, Gender, and Global Studies at Appalachian State University, connects her classes to Appalachian's initiatives of embracing a diverse world, developing engaged and responsible global citizens, and cultivating critical, creative and innovative thinking to address challenges.

Kaplan teaches and researches across written and visual mediums as an interdisciplinary scholar. She attributes her interdisciplinary bent to her scientist father and artistic grandmother. “Perhaps this is where my desire to connect factual data to creative expression comes from,” said Kaplan. “My work is unusual in academe, as I work in both written and visual mediums.”

“…Too often, both locally and globally, digital worlds replicate and reinforce ‘real world’ inequalities… but spaces are available to intervene in and re-imagine digital technologies and their impacts.”

Ann Pegelow Kaplan on students’ observations after completing her Digital Gender class

With graduate degrees in photography and folklore/ethnography, she has crafted her own interdisciplinary background and her teaching and research covers a broad spectrum.

In a Digital Gender class last fall, she and her students considered “the overarching question of whether digital technologies contribute to factors of inequality in gender, race, economics, nationality and ability or create spaces of freedom,” she said. “The students’ conclusions were that too often, both locally and globally, digital worlds replicate and reinforce ‘real world’ inequalities, but also that many spaces are available to intervene in and re-imagine digital technologies and their impacts.”

In her lifetime, Kaplan said, “We’ve moved from the invention of email and the advent of the internet to constantly being plugged in and relating to one another through screens. Most of my students don’t remember a time before this was the case. For many of them, digital technologies are a primary way to interact but they haven’t yet experienced a forum to critically engage how digital intermediaries shape their interactions. At the same time, many historically marginalized communities are still massively under-represented in technology development.”

View larger image

Ann Pegelow Kaplan.

Building a digital bridge

Recently, Kaplan, who both makes and analyzes photography, presented a project that took form last summer to Appalachian’s Humanities Council in a presentation titled “Passage/s: Lost & Found Photography, Refugee Crises, and Privilege.” In this exhibit, she compares the present to the past and seeks to help viewers excavate their own personal connections.

While doing research in Berlin, Germany, Kaplan witnessed refugee families migrating due to crises in their home countries and was reminded of her ancestors’ histories. So, she looked for a way to convey the contemporary struggle and its connection to her own family’s story.

“In a growing and changing world population, making connections between individual and global context is key,” she said. “I hope others will remember their own family’s connection to immigration through my work.”

A Jewish-American, Kaplan relates her family story of great-grandparents leaving Europe for the United States. She also had relatives who remained in Europe and ultimately perished in the Holocaust. While her great-grandparents immigrated to the United States and other family members moved to Palestine, many others did not escape and were murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe.

In Berlin, Kaplan saw firsthand elements of the current immigration crisis that is impacting the world. Just as Jewish people fled turmoil in the 1930s and ’40s, Syrians are now fleeing extreme danger. And just as in the past, refugee crises are affecting more than one population. Nations have had alternating reactions, with some refugees seeking shelter while others are being turned away. Her work tells the narrative of these two stories unfolding before her in a visual juxtaposition.

While in Berlin, Kaplan spent time searching antique stores, flea markets and archives to find images to use in her work. She looked for historic images, particularly from the 1930s and ’40s, to humanize the present through the past. Kaplan juxtaposed these historical images with her own, new photographs, creating composite photos that suggest multiple stories. She feels that using these “lost and found” images ask the viewer to question which crisis they are confronting and how these realities are connected.

Typically, Kaplan does not title her works beyond a simple word or phrase, but in “Passage/s,” she incorporated the names of the neighborhoods in Berlin where she made the photographs and which are associated with multiple historical and contemporary persecuted communities.

Her objective, she said, is to create a point of entry for the audience – to ask viewers to consider issues of power, struggle and one another’s humanity. She further explained the deep relevance of the arts and the humanities in relating to the issues of our time: “The arts and the humanities give us the opportunity to consider multiple perspectives and cultivate empathy.”

View her works

These “lost and found” images by Ann Pegelow Kaplan blur the lines between which immigration crisis the viewer is confronting. Typically, she does not title her works beyond a simple word or phrase, but in “Passage/s,” she incorporated the names of the neighborhoods in Berlin where photographs were taken and are associated with multiple historical and contemporary persecuted communities.

View larger image

Ann Pegelow Kaplan; Yellow Portrait (Fehrbelliner Platz).

View larger image

Ann Pegelow Kaplan; Steps (Mauerpark).

View larger image

Ann Pegelow Kaplan; The Way (Schoeneberg).

View larger image

Ann Pegelow Kaplan; Passages II (Oranienburger Strabe).

View larger image

Ann Pegelow Kaplan; Passages (Museumsinsel).

View larger image

Ann Pegelow Kaplan; Entrance (Tiergarten).

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.

Let’s talk immigration
Let’s talk immigration

We’ve consulted our internal experts, done some homework and gathered information to sort matters out and share sound information.

Learn more
Ann Pegelow Kaplan
Ann Pegelow Kaplan

The official website of Ann Pegelow Kaplan.

Learn more

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is home to 16 academic departments, one stand-alone academic program, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. The College of Arts and Sciences aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and unique location. The college’s values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of its students as global citizens. There are approximately 6,100 student majors in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing Appalachian's general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at https://cas.appstate.edu.

About Appalachian State University

As the premier public undergraduate institution in the state of North Carolina, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls more than 19,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.

Share

Topics

  • Arts and Humanities
  • Diversity
  • Faculty and Staff
  • Research

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.

Archives

Appalachian Today is an online publication of Appalachian State University. This website consolidates university news, feature stories, events, photo galleries, videos and podcasts.

The migration of materials from other sites is still incomplete, so if you cannot find what you're looking for here, please refer to the following sources:

  • University media releases published prior to Jan. 1, 2015
  • Additional feature stories may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • Podcasts may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • Photo galleries and videos published prior to Jan. 1, 2015 may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • A university-wide Google Calendar may be found at Events at Appalachian

Share

Topics

  • Arts and Humanities
  • Diversity
  • Faculty and Staff
  • Research

Other Recent Posts

  • Appalachian alumna Catrina Thompson ’09 focuses on community as Winston-Salem’s chief of police
    Appalachian alumna Catrina Thompson ’09 focuses on community as Winston-Salem’s chief of police
  • The power of gratitude
    The power of gratitude
  • $2.5M grant supports App State’s continued provision of mental health training and services in rural NC
    $2.5M grant supports App State’s continued provision of mental health training and services in rural NC
  • Find Your Sustain Ability: Amory Lovins explains how “off-the-shelf technologies” and integrated design can achieve energy and cost efficiency
    Find Your Sustain Ability: Amory Lovins explains how “off-the-shelf technologies” and integrated design can achieve energy and cost efficiency
  • App State’s Army ROTC program celebrates 50th anniversary
    App State’s Army ROTC program celebrates 50th anniversary
  • American Council of Learned Societies funds App State anthropological research of Navajo Nation
    American Council of Learned Societies funds App State anthropological research of Navajo Nation
  • 15 countries, 6 continents — go globe-trotting with ‘Mountaineers Abroad’
    15 countries, 6 continents — go globe-trotting with ‘Mountaineers Abroad’
  • $4M-plus in federal funding supports App State GEAR UP
    $4M-plus in federal funding supports App State GEAR UP
  • Brothers and sisters clock 132 combined years of dedicated service to App State
    Brothers and sisters clock 132 combined years of dedicated service to App State
  • App State honors more than 120 staff members for decades of service
    App State honors more than 120 staff members for decades of service
  • UNC-TV to air App State documentary on Dulatown — a Caldwell County community of black and white kith and kin
    UNC-TV to air App State documentary on Dulatown — a Caldwell County community of black and white kith and kin
  • Campus emergency siren test to be conducted Dec. 4
    Campus emergency siren test to be conducted Dec. 4

Archives

Appalachian Today is an online publication of Appalachian State University. This website consolidates university news, feature stories, events, photo galleries, videos and podcasts.

The migration of materials from other sites is still incomplete, so if you cannot find what you're looking for here, please refer to the following sources:

  • University media releases published prior to Jan. 1, 2015
  • Additional feature stories may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • Podcasts may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • Photo galleries and videos published prior to Jan. 1, 2015 may be found at Appalachian Magazine
  • A university-wide Google Calendar may be found at Events at Appalachian
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Galleries
  • In the Media
  • Grants
  • Speakers
  • All Posts
  • Topics
  • For the media
  • Archives
  • Contact

Appalachian State University

Copyright 2019 Appalachian State University. All rights reserved.

University Communications
ASU Box 32153
Boone, NC 28608
828-262-6156
ucomm@appstate.edu

Abouts

Disclaimer | EO Policy | Website manager: montaldi | Website Feedback

Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram LinkedIn Snapchat