Supported by Gender and Law at Durham (GLAD) and Durham Centre for Academic Development (DCAD) , we are running a zine fest as an alternative to traditional academic conferences. Zines are created to articulate emerging ideas, lived experiences, and radical positions through a more visual and accessible medium - what is so great about zines is that they allow us, as academics, to present our research outside of the traditional presentation/poster format.

There will be an introductory panel talk about feminism and (maga)zines from past to future (more information below). The zine fest itself will be a drop-in session where attendees can see the zines that have been created for the fest, talk to the creators of the zine, and take away free printed copies. The room will be set up so that you will be able to walk around and take in the zines at your own pace.

Submitted titles include:

• Law: A Love Story
• The sum of my parts: A Zine
• Menopause and Mind
• Gendabicod: a decolonial research method of reciprocity
• The female Gothic aesthetics of domestic noir
• Dragula: Frights, Sights and Gender Delights
• Not just gay penguins

Along with a number of yet-to-be-titled zines 

There will also be a workshop station set up at the fair where attendees can re-mix the zines they encounter, or create a brand new zine page of their own. Don’t worry if you have never made a zine before - Lu Williams from Gurrl Zine Fair will be positioned at the workshop station to provide general guidance on how to make zine pages.

Schedule

Talk: Feminist (maga)zines: past and future

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm TLC101

Please register for this talk

DIY-ing Gender Zine Fest

2:30 pm - 4:30 pm TLC101

No registration necessary Drop-in session, visit at anytime

Talk: Feminist (maga)zines: past and future

1:30pm - 2:30pm

Register for talk

This panel talk will explore the role zines and magazines have played in feminist thought from past to future. Presenters include:

• Liberating Histories Project: Liberating Histories tells the stories of the Women’s Liberation Movement through UK feminist magazines and connects these stories to women’s activism today. The project is led by Dr Victoria Bazin, Dr Melanie Waters, Professor Kaitlynn Mendes and Dr Eleanor Careless and more information can be found on their website.
• Lu Williams of Grrrl Zine Fair: Lu Williams (b.1993, Essex) is an artist producing sculpture, print, zines, drawing, writing, video, events and workshops through research, community engagement, collecting and collaboration. They make work through the lens of queerness, neurodivergence and working classness. In 2015 they created Grrrl Zine Fair, a place for self-publishing and DIY art, music and culture surrounding feminist publishing.
• Law, Gender and Society Students: As part of the undergraduate course Law, Gender and Society, students created a zine which captured their reflections on topics encountered during the course. Student presenters from the course will provide their reflections on creating the zine from both a feminist and pedagogical perspective.

What is a Zine? 

A zine (pronounced zeen) is a self-produced publication often in a scrap-booked/DIY aesthetic. While zines can be about any topic, they have played an important role in disseminating activist, anarchist, queer, and third-wave feminist thought. As a self-published medium, they allow for people to disseminate ideas/information/images/representations that are missing or excluded from dominant publications (whether that is mainstream media or academic texts).

Why a Zine fest?

We are running a zine fest as an alternative to traditional forms of academic gatherings. Zines are created to articulate emerging ideas, lived experiences, reflections, and radical perspectives that may be rejected or ignored by the mainstream. There is no reviewer 2 or a ‘required canon’ to cite – it is about expressing your ideas in a format that makes sense to you. Zines are never intended to have a wide circulation, they are about finding and making connections between people. It is not about defending the relevance or uniqueness of your idea to an audience, but about finding those who resonate with what you are saying.

While we are not saying that all traditional academic gatherings should be replaced with zine fests, we do think there are a lack of spaces directed towards connection and creative expression in academia. We want to run a zine fest to foster that space.