Debra Caplan is associate professor of theater at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. She specializes in modern Jewish theater and performance, with a focus on Yiddish theater. Her first book, Yiddish Empire: The Vilna Troupe, Jewish Theater, and the Art of Itinerancy (University of Michigan Press, 2018), won the George Freedley Memorial Award from the Theatre Library Association for best new book in theater and performance studies, and the Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish Studies from the Modern Language Association. She is co-founder of the Digital Yiddish Theater Project, an international research collective that applies digital tools to the study of Yiddish theater. She is also a playwright, director, dramaturg, and theater translator.