Department of Interdisciplinary Studies

Associate Professor • Department of Interdisciplinary Studies • Faculty Affiliate in Art • Faculty Affiliate in Global Studies • Faculty Affiliate Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies • Member of the Graduate Faculty

Ann Burnett Kaplan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, as well as faculty affiliate of the Department of Art, programs in Global Studies and Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies, and a member of the Graduate Faculty. Her work occupies both the making and study of photography, as an artist who produces and exhibits work nationally and internationally, and as a scholar of photographic modes of representation who examines its interaction with issues of difference, privilege, and the potential of rights for humans and other beings. At ASU, she has also been a co-developer of the minors in Creative Engagement & Social Change and Documentary Studies, serves as a faculty reviewer for limited funding opportunities, and is an elected member of the University Research Council. She has also served as guest curator at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts.

Exhibitions

Kaplan's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Universität Münster, Munster, Germany; Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK; Amos Eno Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University; Mendoncino College, Ukiah, CA; Manifest Creative Research Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill + Click! Photography Festival, Durham, NC; Venice International University, Venice, Italy; Department of Digital Arts, University of Malta; Tahoe CoLab, Granlibakken Tahoe, Tahoe City, California; Carrack Modern, Durham, NC; Contemporary Art Center, Peoria, IL; tête gallery, Berlin, Germany; Hillyer Art Space and Fotoweek DC, Washington, DC; School of Visual Arts, Virginia Tech University; California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA; De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines; FORMAT Gallery, Washington, DC; among others. Kaplan recently curated the exhibition Spectacle & Scaffolding: Contemporary Photography Muses Hierarchy. She is currently working on her first book project, which is also in the form of a dissertation. From from art portrait to selfie and surveillance video to algorithm, her work considers what a contemporary photographic portrait is and how its form and use affects the notion of the rights of humans and other beings in the contemporary era.

Kaplan's work has been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, SouthArts, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Ford Foundation, and others. She has been invited to present her work at the F/Stop Festival für Fotografie in Leipzig, Germany; Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria, Canada; Philippines Arts Congress in Baguio City, Philippines; and the College Art Association's THAT Camp in New York, New York. In addition to speaking at the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the Society of Photographic Education in Chicago, Illinois, she has also been invited for a joint, all-Caucus talk by the combined SPE LGBTQ+, Multicultural, and Women's Caucuses. Kaplan previously served as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Elon University and Visiting Assistant Professor of Graduate Studies in the School of Fine Arts at Philippines Women's University in Manila, Philippines. She has been awarded two artist residencies with fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center.

In her previous professional life, Kaplan served as Director of the Orange County Arts Commission and Curator at the North Carolina Museum of History. 

Education

• PhD (ABD), European Graduate School (Defense Scheduled January 2026)
• MFA, Visual Arts, Clemson University
• MA, Folklore, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Certificate in Non-Profit Management, Duke University
• BA, Anthropology & Sociology, University of Mary Washington

Academic Specialties

visual studies; photography and video (production and analysis); critical studies and resiliency: climate, creative, cultural; ethnography, oral history

Courses

GLS 2000 - When Worlds Collide
GLS 3530 - Global Dialogues

IDS 2002 - Interdisciplinary Connections: Design
IDS 4004 - Interdisciplinary Connections: Capstone

IDS 3230 - Photography as Social Critique (Also offered as ART 3230)
IDS 3260 - Creativity: Methods & Practice

IDS 2211 - Exploring the Documentary Form
IDS 3211 - Documentary Studies Seminar
IDS 4211 - Advanced Documentary Projects