Annotated Bibliography
Works that address the unique ways zines communicate their messages and analyze their historical and contemporary impacts.
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Bagchi, S. S., and Liju Jacob Kuriakose. “Pleasure, ‘Education’, and Erotism: An Intersectional Reading of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Agents of Ishq Zines.”Examines two zines by the platform Agents of Ishq and goes into detail on how zines disrupt the homogenization of sexual education and introduce varied perspectives on sexuality, eroticism, and pleasure.
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Duncombe, Stephen. Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative CultureDue to their varied and ephemeral nature, it would be incorrect to define anything as a "foundational" text on zines. That being said, this book does a ton of groundwork to analyze zines, the culture that surrounds them, and the ways that they have tried (and fallen short) of impacting change. Duncombe also speaks to the latent potential of zines to create meaningful social progress.
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Horton, Brian A. “Between the Sheets: The Queer Sociality of Bombay Zines.”Provides analyses of three prominent queer zines in India during the 90s and 2000s. Investigates the ways in which zines provide queer spaces within their pages and contribute to and reflect the vibrant community that has been cultivated in physical queer spaces.
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Hroch, Miloš. “Not Out of Date, but Out of Time: The Materiality of Zines and Post-Digital Memory.”Situates zines within the post-digital era and examines the importance of their materiality as objects that can be physically interacted with.
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Morland, Ayla. “Authorships of Resistance Brontë Juvenilia and Riot Grrrl Zines.”Draws parallels between zines produced by Riot Grrrl zinesters and the works created by the Brontë siblings during their childhoods.
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Piepmeier, Alison. “Why Zines Matter: Materiality and the Creation of Embodied Community.”Analyzes the material and tactile elements of four zines to demonstrate the ways in which the material elements of zines create an emotional and communal connection between readers and authors.
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Radway, Janice. “Zines, Half-Lives, and Afterlives: On the Temporalities of Social and Political Change.”Speaks about the ephemeral nature of zines and their long term impacts on social and political outcomes.
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Way, Laura. “Dadzine: Zine Making with Young Fathers as a Participatory and DIY Approach to Research.”Engages with zines as a medium for participatory research, a methodology in which the power structures inherent to research are broken down and participants are treated as co-researchers, whose inputs and reflections are integral to the research produced.
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Yam, Shui-yin Sharon, and Carissa Ma. “Being Water: Protest Zines and the Politics of Care in Hong Kong.”Analyzes the use of zines during the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill protests in Hong Kong (2019) in order to foster a communal care practice and promote a culture of voluntary kinship.
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“Zines as Artistic Tools in Harm Reduction: Bridging Subjective Experience and Scientific Knowledge.”Describes the history of zines as they were used during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, primarily amongst drug users, and expands upon how zines can be used as resources for community harm reduction.
Works that explain the importance and use of zines in classroom settings and provide guidelines for educators interested in incorporating zines into their courses.
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Anderson, Jill, and Hel Spandler. “Mad Zine Pedagogy: Using Zines in Critical Mental Health Learning and Education.”Makes a case for the use of zines in teaching social work students, explaining the benefits of incorporating perzines about mental health into course curricula. Navigates potential pitfalls that may occur when assigning zines as readings or having students create zines.
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Chenevey, Liz. Embodied Care: Exploring Mental Health Zines as Feminist Health Resources.Takes a feminist approach to the medium of zines, examining how zines on mental health contrast hegemonic and patriarchal ideals of biomedical objectivity.
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Ingram, Noël. “Using Zines to Teach Literary Analysis in a Post ChatGPT World.”Details a course that culminates with student creation of a literary analysis zine. The assignment was originally assigned in an undergraduate course at Boston College.
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Lonsdale, Chelsea. “Engaging the ‘Othered’: Using Zines to Support Student Identities.”Explains how the author came to incorporate zines into her classroom as a college writing and composition teacher. Shares two projects she has assigned on zines (one graded and one extra credit), as well as student work and reflections.
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Mathews, Emilee. Radical Appropriation in Zine Making.A simple, one shot lesson plan for a class on zines and the politics of appropriation. Mainly geared towards humanities (rather than fine arts) students.
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McElroy, Kelly, and Korey Jackson. “Material Matters : Embodied Community and Embodied Pedagogy.”Findings from a course on zines and exploration of the ways that zines cultivate enjoyment, embodiment, and vulnerability in classrooms. Includes instructions for hectography, photocopier challenges, and other zine publishing techniques so that others may adopt them into their own classrooms.
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McMaster, Kiera E. B., et al. “Getting Punk and Personal: Creating and Evaluating Podcasts and Zines as Pedagogy for Teaching and Learning in Critical Geographical Methodologies.”Speaks to the positive impacts that creative mediums can have on students, consisting of the thoughts and reflections of a professor and four of their students who worked together to create a podcast and zine for an assignment.
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Potter, Robin, and Alycia Sellie. “Zines in the Classroom: Critical Librarianship and Participatory Collections.”Offers a one shot lesson plan for an undergraduate class to spend a session on zines. The plan includes suggested materials, questions, and learning objectives for a class where students can browse, discuss, and make zines.
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Rallin, Aneil, and Ian Barnard. “The Politics of Persuasion versus the Construction of Alternative Communities: Zines in the Writing Classroom.”Speaks on the ability of zines to encourage students to consider a material (rather than general) audience and to break away from the more prescriptive norms of academic writing.
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Reynolds, Lindsey. Zines, Appropriation, and the Art Library as Studio Space.A six to seven day course (or section of a course) that instructs students on fair use through the medium of zine making. The course ideally takes place in the visual arts library, introducing students to the space and its collections, and building rapport and familiarity between students and library staff.
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Yang, Andrew. “Engaging Participatory Literacy through Science Zines.”Takes a scientific, rather than humanities-centered, approach to the use of zines in course curricula. Illustrates how the creation of zines challenges STEM students to state complex processes and concepts in a concise and digestible manner.
Works that address the challenges and ethical ramifications of collecting and cataloguing zines, and best practices for developing a library zine collection.
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Barton, Joshua, and Patrick Olson. “Cite First, Ask Questions Later? Toward an Ethic of Zines and Zinesters in Libraries and Research.”Unpacks the differences when citing and cataloguing zines as compared to other, more traditional library materials.
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Bobrow, Evan. “The Role of Academic Libraries in the Shifting Landscape of Zines.”A relatively short piece that defines zines and advocates for their physical accessibility via the zine library, citing the importance of both professionally and DIY- produced zines and zines’ ability to inspire creativity for readers.
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Hays, Anne. “Zine Authors’ Attitudes about Inclusion in Public and Academic Library Collections: A Survey-Based Study.”Outlines the importance and stakes of zines being publicly accessible in library collections. Its study generated 150 responses from zine makers over the age of 18 and examined their attitudes about collection publicity, attribution practices, authorial control, and digital preservation.
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Zine Librarians’ Code of Ethics.Created by a group of librarians at the 2014 Zine Librarians (Un)Conference, this zine/page/doc covers all the material a prospective zine librarian may want to know, from acquisition and development strategies to cataloging, attribution, and collection access.
Books that allow readers to access, read, or browse many zines, often from certain cultural or historical contexts.
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Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make ZinesA truly beautiful compilation-style book that covers different eras and subcultures within North American zine publishing, allowing readers to peruse the covers and select contents of hundreds of zines spanning over five decades.
The original entries for this annotated bibliography were researched, compiled, and organized by Sierra Silversmith '27 in the summer of 2025.
