Professor Zoë Playdon

Zoe Playdon

Zoë Playdon is Emeritus Professor of Medical Humanities at the University of London, Research Fellow at Birkbeck College, and Visiting Professor at the University of Cumbria. For twenty-one years she was Head of Postgraduate Medical Education for NHS Kent, Surrey and Sussex Regional Postgraduate Medical Deanery.

Zoë’s research into contact zones between Western biomedicine and traditional Indigenous medicine in the Yukon Territory, Canada, led to a long-term collaboration with Dr Lisa Fenton to explore issues around Bushcraft, education, health, and culture.

A former co-Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists [GLADD], in 1994 Zoë and Dr Lynne Jones MP co-founded the Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity. She has over thirty years experience of front-line work in LGBTQI+ human rights, including supporting and advising on UK and European legal cases. Her recent book, The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes, is described by Helena Kennedy as “a landmark work of history, law and social change”.


See other GBS speaker profiles