Abstract：Controlling magnetism in an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator with ultrashort optical pulses can lead to both advances in our fundamental understanding of out-of-equilibrium interacting quantum matter as well as to novel high-speed information storage and processing technologies. However, optically manipulating antiferromagnetic order and detecting its out-of-equilibrium behaviors have proven difficult owing to various factors such as the absence of net magnetization and the ultrafast timescales involved. In this talk, I will describe a novel time-resolved nonlinear optical polarimetry technique that is capable of measuring ultrafast changes in magnetic symmetry. I will then describe how we have deployed this technique to reveal an unusual out-of-equilibrium critical behavior of the magnetic order in an optically pumped Mott insulator that circumvents the laws of equilibrium thermodynamics.