Stephanie Kane is Professor Emerita in the Department of International Studies at Indiana University Bloomington and affiliate faculty in the Department of Anthropology. She earned her Ph.D. in social and cultural anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1986, an M.A. from the same institution in 1981, and a B.A. from Cornell University in 1972. Previously, she served as Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Gender Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. Kane was also a Fulbright Scholar affiliated with the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Her research specializations encompass the political ecology of water and ice, ethnography of infrastructure with a focus on flood control, social and environmental justice, and creative non-fiction writing that bridges science, social science, and the humanities. Kane's ethnographic studies explore how inhabitants of river and coastal cities integrate into the planetary crust and address water disasters including flooding, pollution, and dispossession. Her work covers regions in South, Central, and North America, as well as global port cities such as those in Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, and the Canadian Arctic and subarctic. Key publications include the book Just One Rain Away: The Ethnography of River-City Flood Control (2022); Where Rivers Meet the Sea: The Political Ecology of Water (Temple University Press, 2012; Audible edition, 2016); Crime’s Power: Anthropologists and the Ethnography of Crime, co-edited with Phil Parnell (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2003); AIDS Alibis: Sex, Drugs, and Crime in the Americas (Temple University Press, 1998); and The Phantom Gringo Boat: Shamanism and Development in Panama (Smithsonian Institution, 1994; Cybereditions, 2004). Notable articles feature 'Navigating the Structural Coherence of Sea Ice' (2022), 'Winnipeg’s Aspirational Port and the Future of Arctic Shipping' (2022), 'Post-Election Surveillance Ecology in Midtown Manhattan' (Crime, Media and Culture, 2019), 'Where Sheets of Water Intersect: Infrastructural Logistics and Sensibilities in Winnipeg, Manitoba' (2018), and 'Humans as the Third Evolutionary Stage of Biosphere Engineering of Rivers' (Anthropocene, 2015). Through her scholarship, Kane illuminates the interplay of geoscience, engineering, law, social life, and art in advancing environmental and social justice.

Professional Email: stkane@iu.edu