Julie Wosk, author and Professor Emerita of English, Art History, and Studio Art at State University of New York, Maritime College, will speak at Ventfort Hall. A tea will be served after the presentation. In America’s Gilded Age and in Europe, clockwork female dolls decorated fashionable parlors.  These mechanical wonders came in many guises, from demure women with their parasols to a dying Cleopatra in her harem outfit.  Today there is a burst of fascination with simulated females, as seen in films, novels, art, and AI-enhanced dolls. They appear as companions, pleasure dolls, healthcare aides, artificial friends, and even fictional duplicates of deceased loved ones.  Drawing on her new book Artificial Women, Berkshire author Julie Wosk highlights these lifelike copies of real human beings.