Zoe Copeman

Zoe Copeman is a PhD Candidate studying early modern European art under the supervision of Dr. Anthony Colantuono. Specializing in eighteenth-century English and French print culture, her research primarily concerns the history of medical portraiture and its foundations in early psychology, natural history, and folklore. She is also interested in the pathologization of monsters, the evolution of the grotesque, and the false universality of pathologies in visual form.

Zoe graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland College Park in both Psychology and Art History & Archaeology in Fall 2015. Her undergraduate work focused on abnormal behavior and constructions of  identity. Taking time to explore a career in psychology, Zoe served as an associate therapist before moving to London to complete her MA in the History of Art at University College London. There, she received distinction for her MA dissertation entitled "Deviating from Monstrosity: The paradox of the normal in Les Ecarts de la Nature". In November 2023, she published her MA dissertation through the peer-reviewed Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. Click here to find that article.  

Currently, her doctoral dissertation, “Cankerous Femme: The European Mastectomy and the Semiotics of Surgery,” investigates the history of mastectomies, their visualization in medical print and pop culture, and the anxieties produced by a de-gendered body. Her latest discoveries on this topic will be presented at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Spring 2024.

Outside of her academic career, Zoe has worked and interned for several galleries and museums, including the Michelle Smith Collaboratory, the STAMP Gallery, the University of Maryland Art Gallery, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Currently, she supplements her love of folklore by acting as a ghost tour guide for her hometown of Ellicott City and producing historical talks for the local state parks. You can also check out a couple of her horror fiction stories in the locally published volume Mid-Atlantic Tales.

A trained public speaker, Zoe has been invited to present her research at various symposia and conferences, including those sponsored by SECAC, RCC at Harvard, and the Barnes Foundation. She welcomes inquiries into her research, invitations to speak on medical visual culture from the late 17th through early 19th century, and/or collaborations on public programs. Please contact her using the email address above.