The paper, written by Zoe Fleysher ’26, focuses on an early modern French tabloid.
By Cara Nixon
December 4, 2025
One day, “world-permitting,” Zoe Fleysher ’26 says they want to be an expert in their field.
“I want to be able to bring underrepresented voices and lenses onto the presentation of history, not only with queerness, but from a woman-centered lens and from a literary lens,” they say. “Because I feel like people often neglect that.”
Now they’re one step closer to realizing their dream with a paper of theirs newly published in the Tufts Historical Review. The article, which was Zoe’s final preparatory paper for their junior seminar with Professor Michael Breen [history and humanities], analyzes an early modern French tabloid which focused on women as perpetrators of crime. Zoe’s paper analyzes how women were treated in these pamphlets, what it means corporeally to be a woman, and how womanhood is transgressive to the norm.
It was Breen who initially inspired Zoe to take on the subject matter, and who encouraged them to submit the paper to a few journals for publication. Of all the journals they submitted to, Tufts is the last one Zoe thought their paper would get published in. When they found out, it was in Breen’s class, and they jumped out of their chair in excitement.
“I think it's a testament to my capability,” Zoe says of being published. “I feel like I'm often put down, not only because I'm very femme presenting, but because, I don't know—I have this worry that people don't think I'm smart. So it's very gratifying and very validating to hear from an institution that they want to publish my work.”
While at Reed, Zoe says they feel like they’ve built a strong academic support system of adults they trust, including Breen, their thesis adviser Professor Ann Delehanty [French and humanities], Professor Catherine Witt [French and film and media studies], and Professor Naomi Caffe [Russian and humanities].
"I am so impressed with Zoe's work and their accomplishment,” says Breen. “The initiative and hard work Zoe put into not only reading these sources, but developing an insightful analysis of them is remarkable. It was a joy working with them on this project and helping them see it through to publication is one of the most memorable and rewarding experiences I've had working with a Reed student."
After graduation, Zoe hopes to attend a history or comparative literature PhD program and one day become a professor or archivist.
“I'm really glad that I got the approval to bring this information out into the world and teach more people and become a part of a circle of academics,” Zoe says. “My work and my thoughts are now in this cloud of information, which just feels really special, because that's where I want my brain to be forever.”