Here are Douglas faculty that have used zines pedagogically in their courses or as transformative learning. If you are interested in using zines in the classroom connect with one of these faculty members or ask a librarian how the library can help.
Here is a growing collection of zines created in ELLA, GSWS and GLGC courses.
Anthropology / Gender Studies Women Studies (GSWS)
Jaime Yard (Anthropology)
“I started using and making zines in my classes with students to encourage creative exploration of difficult ideas. I love the DIY ethic and zines tend to present issues in a personal and direct way that resonates with students and invites them to do the same. It’s a great opening to exploring questions of validity and reliability of information contained in different kinds of publications with students.” -- Jaime Yard
Jaime has used zines and created zine assignments for groups of students or individuals in the following classes.
To contact Jaime about how she uses zines email yardj@douglascollege.ca
DACS (Disability and Community Studies)
Lisa Hansen (Applied Community Studies) - DACS
Lisa has used zines as an assignment option in CFCS 1130, Development Across the Lifespan. "For example, when exploring concepts such as Gender Identity and sexual orientation, the zine is a perfect vehicle to integrate course content with personal exploration of the topic. The zine aids in the development of a social justice position and supports and values students who want to demonstrate their knowledge using a mix of creative abilities."
To contact Lisa about how she uses zines email hansenl5@douglascollege.ca
ELLA (English Language Learning and Acquisitions)
Tina Fusco
ELLA instructor, Tina Fusco, used zines in her ELLA 0120 course (S2023) to explore perspectives of Canadian culture through the voices of her recent immigrant and international students. The zine project allowed these students to broaden the college community student voice. Created in class this collaborative class zine prompted students to share their experiences of coming to Canada.
"Zine projects in my classroom serve as low-stakes assignments that promote high-level cognitive skill development. These projects allow students to engage with and respond to the themes we study in class. Through creating zines, students find a voice to share their ideas and thoughts with the broader college community. Given that my students often come from marginalized backgrounds, zines provide an ideal medium to bring them into the academic space. While students may initially be skeptical about the hands-on cut-and-paste process, their curiosity, creativity, and sense of agency take over, empowering them to create meaningful expression." --Tina
To contact Tina about how she uses zines email fuscot@douglascollege.ca
English
Amber Dawn. (2019). From rants to love letters: sex worker zines tell many truths. Broken Pencil, 84, 13-18.
In this article Amber recounts the need for zines for marginalized voices in the sex worker industry. In her own words, "In the spring of 2006, I was hired by AIDS Vancouver to coordinate a zine with male and trans spectrum sex workers in the Vancouver area. I hadn't seen a sex worker-authored zine before, but, as a full-service sex worker during a largely pre-social media age, zines as communication immediately made sense to me."
GSWS (Gender Studies Women Studies)
Sally Mennill (GSWS / History)
In Gender, Sexualities and Women’s Studies (GSWS 1101-01 & GSWS 1101-2) Sally's class collaborated and created these zines.
To contact Sally about how she uses zines email mennills@douglascollege.ca
Paynter, Sarah (GSWS / Geography)
Sarah created a zine matrix for her recent zine class assignment. Located at bottom of this page.
To contact Sarah about how she uses zines email paynters@douglascollege.ca
Language Literature and Performing Arts
Janice Sestan (Communications / Global Citizenship Instructor)
Used zines in her GLGC 1101 course. "The students in Global Citizenship tend to be passionate about advocacy and social justice topics that they learn through the topic of UN SDGs, which is why I developed a zine assignment as part of the SDG Open Pedagogy Fellowship to deploy in this course". -- Janice Sestan.
The zines students created are available in the print collection at both campus libraries and also online in DOOR.
To contact Janice about how she uses zines email sestanj@douglascollege.ca
Sociology
Jakub Bukowicz (Sociology)
"I've found the zine collection at our library to be an invaluable resource for my Social Movements class. Zines, with their grassroots origins and unfiltered voices, are written in the language of activism. They serve as the direct voice of movement participants, speaking to social issues often before these are addressed in scholarly works. My students benefit from having access to this unique collection of social movement perspectives." Jakub uses the collection for Sociology 2200.
To contact Jakub about how he uses zines email burkowiczj@douglascollege.ca
Lisa Smith (Sociology)
"As an instructor in sociology, I have found many ways to integrate zines into course content. I want my students to feel comfortable and confident reading academic readings, but I also want them to know about the people behind the topics we are learning about and see the connection to the 'real world'. I assign zines as course materials alongside other readings, to highlight the amazing work of grassroots activists to advance social justice and share examples of on-the-ground and experiential knowledge. Diversifying course content by drawing on alternative publications, models for students that knowledge comes in many forms. As a course assignment, zines provide an outside the box assessment style that centers diverse learning styles and skills sets. Finally, working with zines during in-class discussion activities can provide a powerful jumping off point for dialogue and discussion around knowledge sharing formats from physical to digital. We are so lucky at Douglas College to have access to the zine collection and as it grows so too do the possibilities for integrating into the courses we teach!" -- Lisa Smith
Lisa Smith also hosted the Menstruation Research Symposium at Douglas (2023). The conference highlighted a zine created by Douglas College student Rebecca Johnson titled Spill it. Stories of menstruation on campus.
To contact Lisa about how she uses zines email lsmith65@douglascollege.ca
The Douglas College Library Zine collections have been used by several faculty in various ways. In courses as an allowed primary source or assigned as a graded project where students create a zine on a topic related to their course or as a workshop to explore issues and create a voice for individual and collective experiences.
If you are interested in a zine library class or zine workshop where students can learn about zines and make their own. Contact the library zine team at lr-zines@douglascollege.ca for more information.
If you are faculty who have used zines in your courses please contact Gretchen at goertzg@douglascollege.ca to be added to this zine library guide and DOOR.
Why?
Where do I start?
Browse the Zine collections in the library or search the catalogue to find Zines on topics that you cover in your course/s. If you find a zine that relates well to your course curriculum, refer them to your students to read. You can assign zines to be read just as you would other types of sources for your course. The library can put specific Zines on course reserves for you.
Allow your students to use zines as alternate material as part of understanding their research. Allow them to cite the zine in their essay and add to their bibliographies and Works Cited. How to cite a zine is in this guide.
Create an assignment where students create a zine as group project or as an individual project. Don't forget to get your student/s to donate their print zine to the library zine collection! or submit their ezine to DOOR (Douglas College Open Repository). Permissions will be needed but information is available on the welcome page of this guide.
Examine the zine marking matrix (sample below).
This zine, in collaboration with the author's written thesis, is a creative exploration of the research question, “How might I shift from a scarcity mindset to a possibility mindset to strengthen my anti-oppressive practice?”
