Zines as Empowerment

CUNY Graduate Center, 2017

Given the diversity of feminist voices, zines are a perfect match for expressive, sometimes hand-scrawled, manifestos, poems, and other outpourings on an incredibly wide range of topics. This case and the neighboring one include zines about reclaiming the body (Adventures in Menstruating), asserting one's claim on stereotypically feminine tasks (Radical Domesticity), and giving voice to the often-silenced experience of abortion (Shout Your Abortion).

2011

2021

This paper presents a unique method for documenting and reflecting learning in interdisciplinary science learning settings, which prioritises the perspectives of marginalised learners and which may be used across cultural contexts. Short for “magazine” or “fanzine,” zines are small DIY booklets which can contain poetry, narrative, drawings, comics, collage and more. Often associated with radical or alternative cultures, they can become a kind of self-made soapbox for the creator, a material artifact that, by its very deconstructed and deconstructing nature, encourages a personalised remixing of ideas. Within this paper, we examine the practical and pedagogical positioning of zines within a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) context. As both a visual and text-based artifact, a zine is uniquely capable of capturing broad responses to diverse learning experiences which blur disciplinary boundaries and offers an inclusive and firmly emancipatory approach to ...

This article examines the potential of recent feminist zines as frameworks of grassroots D.I.Y. and direct democracy in physical and digital communities. While the height of zine creations as works on paper may be traced to the 1990s, this form of feminist counterculture has evolved and persisted in cyberspace, predating, accompanying, and arguably outlasting the physical reality of protests, revolutions, and political expressions such as the Occupy Movement(s). Contemporary zines contain not only email add addresses, but also links to digital sites accompanying real--world resources. Zinesters today utilize the handmade craftsmanship and hand drawn and written techniques of zines in combination with the grassroots connectivity enabled by digital networks relating to zines. These physical and digital communities form interesting protest spaces. This paper explores the persistence and potential of zines as various expressions of personal and political feminist identities via maker culture and of explorations of the dimensionality of the screen and the page. The educational contexts considered in this paper include university zine collections, zine--making in K--12 teaching, as well as zine communities outside of schools and academia.

2011

This dissertation examines the relationship between narrative, identity, the life story, and the social and textual practices of zine-making. The data set for this analysis is comprised of qualitative interviews with ten zine writers primarily based in Chicago, IL, in addition to a set of zines produced by these writers. The first part of the analysis examines a central narrative that emerged in the interviews, what I call the zine discovery narrative. These narratives construed the speakers’ early experiences with zines as “turning points” (Bruner 1994) in their life stories by describing and enacting “aha” moments that immediately led to their zine-making. The analysis focuses five speakers who produced (or did not produce) a discovery narrative performance. For each case, I show 1) whether and how the situated interaction of the interview impinged on the narrative performance, 2) how the speaker used the narrative to make the discovery experience fit into a larger sense of their life story, and 3) how the performance projected a self that was more (or less) connected to a full fledged “zinester” identity and a larger community of discovery narratives and narrators. The second part of the analysis interrogates how zine-makers construct writer identities in talk about zines. I telescope on the voices of two zine-makers who I interviewed and show the linguistic, interactional, and ideological resources each speaker manipulated to accomplish “speaking like a writer” and position their zine as a particular kind of autobiographical gesture. I show how these self-constructions emerged locally as situated performances that I collaborated in producing, and globally as larger discursive moves that position the self in relation to imagined others (e.g. English teachers and other zine writers) as well as circulating ideologies about DIY and writing. The third part of the analysis focuses on the zines themselves and their status as autobiographical “text-objects” (Poletti 2008). Through a close examination of three zines (Proof I Exist, Stream of Consciousness, and Brainscan), I show how zines are emphatically material and embodied objects. I analyze how these writers combine textual and visual elements (e.g. cut-and-paste layouts, use of photographs, and the graphic design of text) to bring off particular “performances of self” (Goffman 1959) while also shaping close and intimate relationships with their readers. Bringing these three analyses together, this dissertation illuminates the wide array of discursive and interactional resources speakers and writers draw on to construct and project identities as zine-makers. By paying attention to my own turns-at-talk, this dissertation also brings into greater relief the analyst’s role in eliciting, co-constructing, and retelling our participants’ stories and self histories.

Technical Communication, 2020

Purpose: In this article, we (re)consider the moments of creativity and beauty in the work of technical communication and how those moments can be better incorporated into, emphasized, explored, and engaged with in classroom instruction or other training. Method: We performed a literature review of texts published in the last 25 years, identified by searching for the keywords “creativity” and “beauty” in technical communication journals, to understand how these concepts have been theorized and included in the field recently. We then extended this prior literature to consider how beauty and creativity might be incorporated into technical communication teaching/training. The suggestions offered are grounded in experiences, observations, and student feedback from our own classrooms and training, and/or from other classroom studies and additional literature from the field. Results: We identified creative approaches that help students and practitioners think more intentionally about audience, purpose, and visual elements in technical communication. These approaches reinforce (rather than distract from) established principles of technical communication. We offer practical solutions for instructors and trainers who are intrigued by more creative techniques but may, for various reasons, consider artistic elements inappropriate or unworkable in their classrooms. Conclusion: Fostering an appreciation for creative and beautiful communication in the classroom helps develop more effective technical communicators. Especially considering that the ways audiences encounter and interact with information have been changing rapidly, technical communicators must be able to think and create both visually and spatially, as well as connect with users on a human level. Keywords: technical communication, creativity, beauty, visual design, multimodality

Design has evolved to become an important strategic tool in business planning and development. Leaders who seek innovation have embraced design methods, including user research, visualization, and development of alternative futures, to inspire innovation. In education it has become equally important to stimulate innovative thinking through integrated interdisciplinary experiences. Industrial Design Fundamentals (IDF), a non-major course offered through the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon, offers a successful model that addresses these goals. IDF helps non-majors to build a broader view of design through hands-on and engaging experiences. The course consist primarily of undergraduate students from a wide range of disciplines including; engineering, business, humanities & social sciences, human computer interaction, and psychology. It seeks to demystify the product design process and involve students in critical thinking and concept generation. Three interwoven goals support a holistic approach: • Visual thinking — through tools and strategies developed by the author, students are taught the value of manual sketching, low-fidelity modeling, and imaging User centered design — each project introduces a different user (self, general, and target) to understand, direct goals, and expose opportunities. • Exploration— strategies are shared for generating multiple ideas that shape complex information and lead to new discovery and innovative thinking. To evolve knowledge and shape experiences, this course is structured around three progressive projects that explore small to large-scale products and systems. Underlying themes challenge students to give significant consideration to how humans interact with physical information (usability/human factors), understand specific needs (usefulness), and product appeal (desirability). By the conclusion of the course, students gain insight into design. They begin to see how design connects within their field of study and the world. Many evolve to become advocates by sharing their course experiences with friends and peers. This exposure has contributed to making design more visible and valuable within the university community – increasing the attraction to design courses, strengthening already established partnerships, and generating new conversations on collaboration. Finally, these diverse students are entering their professions sensitized to design and design issues and may become future strategic partners through continued advocacy.

2016

Purpose: This report brings forward the possibility of capturing creativity and human experience through a visual ethnography approach, applying the use of ‘zines’ as a means of capturing individual engagement with a process. Zines are small (maga)zines from the do-it-yourself movement. They began as a means for fans to express their support of favourite musicians. They are a means to express collective voice from the ground up, less formal than a publication produced by an entity, but formal enough to be considered publications in their own right. Zines can be handcrafted in rough method or can be beautifully designed and produced to very high standards. Zines are presented in this paper as a method of collecting and analysing data within a framework of qualitative analysis that retains more of the shape of the complete experience (Dewey). This is done so as to maintain a more overall sense of what the experience was for an individual participating in an activity within the organis...

TechTrends, 2017

As higher education institutions seek to prepare an increasingly diverse population of students for a rapidly changing future, makerspaces offer a pedagogical approach for engaging all learners in active thinking and hands-on learning while promoting creativity, problem solving, and collaboration skills. In this paper, we discuss ways to integrate makerspaces and maker-centered learning within undergraduate and graduate college courses that reach students from majors ranging across the college and university curriculum. We highlight four courses, each taken by students at different points within their academic programs of study: a) digital media production & 3D modeling in a first-year seminar, b) poetry writing and 3D modeling and printing in a flipped learning course, c) wiki page building workshops for future teachers, and d) learning, media, and technology undergraduate/graduate courses. Makerspace experiences are ongoing features of each course, but not in the same ways, offering models that faculty can use in adapting their courses to include more active and applied learning for students.

This chapter examines the cyberspace presences and digital interplays of contemporary feminist zines in the contexts of art and art education. Although the peak of zine creations as works on paper may be traced to the 1990s, this form of feminist counterculture has evolved into cyberspace forums and expressions. Zines often include not only email addresses alongside “snail mail” addresses, but also links to pdfs and related web resources. Connecting the handmade craftsmanship and hand-drawn and written techniques of zines with the grassroots connectivity enabled by the web, blogs and other online forums relating to zines or containing zines constitute interesting liminal spaces. At other times, zines may be a sort of feminist protest to male-dominated cyberspace forums. This paper explores potential and problems of zines as extensions of hypertext, the dimensionality of the screen and the page, and various expressions of personal identities via individual craftsmanship. The educational contexts of zines considered in this paper include college classrooms, K-12 teaching, as well as library collections. Recent zines addressing gender, sexuality, and motherhood will be emphasized.