As students and I have been creating more zines (both through classes and research projects), we have started to build a critical mass of them. You can now find several in the Collaboratorium (Smith Lab 4180) here at OSU. Best of all, they are free!
Our zine “Infrastructural Digest” is now completed(!) and 250 copies have just been printed for the opening of the Privy2 demonstration garden. The zine features original artwork and essays by OSU students and faculty that reflect on the history of sanitation and its relationship to agriculture. You can download a copy here.
Rather than do terms papers or group presentations for my History of Anthropological Theory class this semester, I had students work in groups to develop zines based on different schools of thought. The results were better than I hoped. I saw everything from “The Communist Memefesto” to a Postcolonial “Dear Abby” Column to even a Twitter battle fought between Tylor and Boas. I’ve attached the scaffolded assignments from the project here (#1, #2, and #3) for those who might be curious in tinkering with the model for other classes. The best part is that they are actually fun to grade.
