Emily Ruth Capper

Emily Ruth Capper is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Minnesota. Her research and curatorial work focuses on modern and contemporary installation, performance, and media art, with a particular emphasis on overlooked intellectual, social, and institutional histories. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Chicago (2016).

Her first book, *Happening Pedagogy: Allan Kaprow’s Experiments in Instruction*, under contract with the University of Chicago Press, examines Kaprow’s art and pedagogy through his interactions with figures like Hans Hofmann, Meyer Schapiro, and John Cage, as well as his teaching at Rutgers and Stony Brook Universities. Her second book project, *Demonstration Rooms: Intermedia Art and Pedagogy after 1960*, explores artists such as Robert Morris, Suzanne Lacy, and Adrian Piper, analyzing how pedagogical practices shape their work. She collaborates with the Getty Research Institute on an interactive digital publication featuring avant-garde scores and video archives.

Capper mentors graduate students in transforming their passions into viable research projects, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches and alternative academic career preparation. She is accepting PhD applications for Fall 2025.