Heidi Zmick

Heidi Zmick is a PhD student in the History Department researching late medieval and early modern European history (1350-1650). She focuses on popular religion, gender, performance culture (especially dance), and material culture. Heidi’s current research explores the intersections of religion and healing in sixteenth-century Strasbourg. 

Other research projects include “Jane Yetsweirt: Executor. Administrator. Assignee.” which examines books produced by the only woman in England to publish common law texts under royal patent. Heidi curated an exhibition in coordination with UVA’s Law Library Special Collections showcasing several of Jane Yetsweirt’s publications which opened in Spring 2025. This research was supported by the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia through the Battestin Fellowship. 

Before attending UVA, Heidi received her B.A. in History and Medieval and Renaissance Studies from the College of William and Mary. Her undergraduate thesis, entitled “Levers a Dansh” [Get Up and Dance]: Monastic Dance in Sixteenth-Century England as Revealed by The Gresley Dance Manuscript,” examined a late fifteenth-century manuscript including dance notation that she argues was created in a monastic institution, advancing the study of dance as devotional practice in late medieval England.