Hello again from the GEOZONe collective! Three months ago, we convened in Detroit to hold our first in-person zine fair in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers. The fair was a huge success: special shout out to Jillian Cain, Lisa Schamess, Rae Baker, Claire Fitch, Elin Thorlund, and all our printing assistants and on-site volunteers for their help!! We couldn’t have done it without y’all. Below, the collective reflects on the zine fair and discusses what’s next for GEOZONe.

On December 2, GEOZONe hosted an online forum on environmental storytelling with zines, in collaboration with the University of Delaware’s Frontier Fellows, a group of scholars working on creative methods of science communication.

We heard from four panelists, including Anne Pasek, media studies professor at Trent University; Jared Margulies, environmental geographer at University of Alabama; Lucy Thompson, PhD student in human geography at Penn State; and Lissette Lorenz, PhD student in STS at Cornell. Panelists discussed their experiences as scholars, artists, and activists with using zines for climate justice work. They emphasized how the material form of zines enables them to connect with broader audiences, travel in unexpected ways, and creatively rework conventions of knowledge-distribution. Our conversation concluded with a Q&A with our audience of 87. Check out the full workshop recording for tips on post-based zine exchanges, guerrilla distribution methods, collaborating with artists, working with activist groups, and more.

On September 13, GEOZONe held a workshop on zine pedagogy in the postsecondary classroom.

We brought together Aparna Parikh, Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Penn State University, Rae Baker, Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Cincinnati, Jane Henderson, Assistant Professor of Geography at Dartmouth Univresity, and Angela Last, lecturer in Human Geography at University of Leicester, for a wide-ranging discussion on the history of zines, the pedagogical potential of zine-making, and the challenges of working with zines in the context of the marks-driven neoliberal classroom. Our conversation included practical advice for educators and examples of student materials. We’re happy to share that 70 people from across the world attended!

Hello from the GEOZONe collective!

It’s been four months since we’ve launched the GEOZONe web archive, and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from scholars, activists, and zine-makers from across the world. Since June, we have archived fourty-two zines with material from more than twenty countries across the world. This wide array of material demonstrates how zines and print ephemera can serve many different purposes for the critical scholar/activist, including grassroots knowledge production, knowledge co-creation, public engagement, research dissemination, self-reflection, fostering critical dialogue, and expressing bold manifestos — to name just a few. We’re looking forward to cataloging this growing collection of material, and we encourage you all to keep sending us your zines!