{"id":4,"date":"2022-11-02T18:09:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T18:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/elaine-bell-kaplan\/?page_id=4"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:46:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:46:37","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/elaine-bell-kaplan\/","title":{"rendered":"About Elaine Bell Kaplan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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My primary interest is in researching and analyzing structural conditions that restrict opportunities for racial\/ethnic groups, women of color and youth. My main concern has to do with how people make meaning of their lives given the socioeconomic barriers they face.<\/p>\n

My recent book, \u201cWe Live in the Shadow\u201d: Inner-City Kids Tell Their Stories through Photographs<\/a> (with 53 photos) is an ethnographic study that explores life from the perspectives of Black and Latino inner-city kids. My concerns have to do with how inner-city kids make decisions to help them cope with family life, peer relations and academic achievement and handle the negative options that can make poverty a life sentence; pregnancy, gang involvement and drug abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n

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\n Publications\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n
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\n “We Live in the Shadow”: Inner-City Kids Tell Their Stories through Photographs\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Published by Temple University Press (website<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Other Selected Publications:<\/strong>
\n\"Book
\n2020<\/strong>
\n\u201cThe Millennial\/Gen Z Leftists are Emerging: Are Sociologists Ready for Them?<\/a>\u201d Sociological Perspectives (June 21).<\/p>\n

2010<\/strong>
\nDoing Care on the Run: Family Strategies in the Contested Terrain of Gender and Institutional Intransigence. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography November 14, 2010 vol. 39 no. 6 587-618<\/p>\n

2003<\/strong>
\nI Want to Read Stuff on Boys; White, Latina and Black Girls Reading Seventeen Magazines and Encountering Adolescence. Adolescence, 38 (149): 141-160 (co-authored with Leslie Cole)<\/p>\n

2000<\/strong>
\nUsing Food as a Metaphor for Care: Middle-School Kids Talk about Family, School and Class Relationships. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, August 29 (4): 479-509.<\/p>\n

1997<\/strong>
\nElaine Bell Kaplan. Not Our Kind of Girl: Unraveling the Myths of Black Teenage Motherhood. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2nd Printing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n Contact \n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Address<\/h3>\n \n \n
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USC Dornsife Department of Sociology<\/a>
\n851 Downey Way
\nHazel & Stanley Hall 314
\nLos Angeles, CA 90089-1059<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n \n

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Email<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Elaine Bell Kaplan<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

\n ekaplan@usc.edu<\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":174,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAbout Elaine Bell Kaplan - Elaine Bell Kaplan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/elaine-bell-kaplan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About Elaine Bell Kaplan - Elaine Bell Kaplan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/elaine-bell-kaplan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Elaine Bell Kaplan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T17:46:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/elaine-bell-kaplan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/278\/2023\/10\/kidsee30-2000x1150-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/elaine-bell-kaplan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/elaine-bell-kaplan\/\",\"name\":\"About Elaine Bell Kaplan - 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