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CSER 3919: Modes of Inquiry

Guide made by Zine Librarian Jenna Freedman for Professor Sayantani DasGupta's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity class

What Zines Are

Zine, short for fanzine or magazine, is a radical self-publication.

Where are you on the zine spectrum? Did you think "zine" rhymed with "pine"? Have you heard of zines but never made one? Have some familiarity? Are you SUPER INTO ZINES?

Barnard Zine Library

Welcome to the Barnard Zine Library!

The Barnard Zine Library is part of the Barnard Library and Academic Information Services (BLAIS) in the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning at Barnard College, Columbia University. The zines are described in the library catalog we share with Columbia University Libraries (CUL), CLIO.

Barnard's zines reflect the Barnard College student population. We have zines by women, nonbinary people, and trans men, with a collection emphasis on zines by women of color and a newer effort to acquire more zines by trans women. We collect zines on feminism and femme identity by people of all genders. The zines are personal and political publications on activism, anarchism, body image, gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl, sexual assault, trans feminisms, and other topics. Our zines are at the lower end of the production level scale and typically cost $10 or less, with most of them in the $1-$5 range.

Follow the zine library on Instagram @barnardzinelibrary photo of a bear in sunglasses, a crown, and pleather jacket holding scissors and "a rly cool zine"

We have a zine club that makes a compilation zine every semester. The zine club been led by BIPOC and other students continuously since 2010.