David Kaplan, Professor, Kent Campus, Department of Geography, College of Arts and Sciences
David Kaplan, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences. Kaplan has been at Kent State since 1995.
Kaplan has written one of the seminal textbooks in urban geography as well as 13 additional books and dozens of research papers, making him well known and well respected in the geography community. During his time at Kent State, Kaplan has served as the primary advisor to nearly 60 graduate students. Many of the graduate students he advised have gone on to become tenured professors at other universities.
From 2019-2020, Kaplan served as president of the American Association of Geographers, the primary organization for geography that has more than 10,000 members. In his time as president, Kaplan had to navigate how to support the community during COVID-19. He established the COVID-19 Rapid Response Task Force to minimize the pandemic’s impact on the geography community and hosted the annual meeting virtually.
Kaplan’s most recent achievement was being named an American Association of Geographers Fellow in 2023.