Alexander Kaplan-Reyes

Field: Japanese History
Advisors: Gregory Pflugfelder & David Lurie
Email: ak3627@columbia.edu

Alexander Kaplan-Reyes is a doctoral history student in early modern Japanese history. Alexander’s primary research focuses on male-male sexuality among elite samurai networks during the Warring States Period and how fragmented political and cultural authority at this time created spaces for experimentation that in turn influenced normative male-male sexual practices and behavior during the Edo Period. He is also interested in modern popular culture interpretations of major historical figures and events of the Warring States Period and how this shapes and reflects so-called “common knowledge” about them. He received his BA in East Asian Studies from Occidental College in 2011 and his MA in East Asian Studies from University of California, Los Angeles in 2014.