History of Art and Architecture

Caplan, as of July 1st, has been appointed Andrea V. Rosenthal Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture. Additionally, this year, Professor Caplan was a Cogut Institute for the Humanities Faculty Fellow Spring 2025. In this seminar, she presented her new book project, titled, Artificial Life: Art, Abstraction, and Analogies between Humans and Machines.

In the Fall, Caplan participated in a symposium on the contemporary artist Dawit Petros on the occasion of his exhibition Prospect a Mare at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Caplan's presentation drew on her essay “Abstraction is an Action" for the accompanying catalogue.

In February, Professor Caplan participated in a roundtable on “Writing Art History After Occupy” at Printed Matter in NYC. Caplan and others transcribed and edited the conversation and publication is forthcoming in the journal October 2025. 

Finally, in April, Caplan was the inaugural speaker for the MIT.nano Resonance Lecture Series, organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's STUDIO.nano. Her talk, “Analogical Engines: Collaborations across Art and Technology in the 1960s,” was followed by a panel discussion with Gediminas Urbonas and Mark Jarzombek, moderated by Ardalan SadeghiKivi. Photo below.