Zoë L. Henry

Zoë L. Henry is an Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, specializing in African American literature, diaspora studies, modernism, and gender/sexuality theory. She holds a B.A. from Brown University (2014) and a Ph.D. from Indiana University (2024). Her research explores intersections of privacy, race, and modernist aesthetics, particularly through works by Black women writers and performers. Current projects include The Public Interior, examining privacy’s role in modernist literature, and a forthcoming book on Black feminist fiction and sound studies.

Her work bridges literary analysis with social theory, addressing topics like law and literature, jazz studies, and queer persistence in modernist narratives. She has published essays in MFS: Modern Fiction Studies, Modernism/modernity Print Plus, and edited volumes on authors like Virginia Woolf and Joseph Conrad. Previously, Henry worked as a journalist for outlets such as Slate and HuffPost.

Key research interests include global modernism, dance/performance studies, and critical social theory. Her writing often centers Black feminist frameworks to analyze how marginalized voices reshape literary and cultural histories.