His research and teaching focus on contemporary art with an emphasis on articulations of blackness in the Western visual field. Copeland has published in leading journals, from American Art to Small Axe, as well as in numerous international exhibition catalogues and essay collections. The author of Bound to Appear: Art, Slavery, and the Site of Blackness in Multicultural America (University of Chicago Press, 2013), Copeland is currently at work on a suite of book projects that further explore the intersections of race, gender, and the aesthetic in the modern world.