Skip to Main Content

Literature Humanities I with Tamara Hache

This session supports zine making with Tamara Hache's Lit Hum class at Columbia University in Fall 2025. The session is led by zine librarian Jenna Freedman

Follow Along

QR code that links to this guide: https://guides.library.barnard.edu/HUMA-1001-CO25

Read and Discuss

screenshot of CLIO catalog record for Tenacious. Shows special collections and zine library copies. Zine sampler!

Search for a zine in CLIO (pro-tip, don't take too long with this)

  • zines AND [your topic]
  • facets, like
    • date
    • country 
    • language
    • subject
    • genre

Read/skim a zine for two minutes & repeat 3x. 

Discuss in a group, using these guiding questions, or your own

  • What does the zine say about its creator--directly or indirectly?
  • How is the zine different from a research paper, digital project, Instagram reel, etc.?

  • How do the zine's appearance and content work with or against each other?

Zines Are

zine excerpt: WHAT IS A ZINE ! "FOR ME AZINE IS NOT JUST A SELF-MADE AND SELF-, PUBLISHED BOOKLET BUT IT IS ALSO SITUATED WITHIN DIY CULTURE. THIS MEANS IT IS NON-PROFIT, NON-COMMERCIAL, LOW-BUDGET, AND NON -COM- PETITIVE. TOPICS AND STYLES CAN VARY BUT IT'S IMPORTANT THAT ZINES REMAIN ACCESSIBLE, BOTH TO READERS (EVERYONE CAN AFFORD TO BUY OR I TRADE THEM AND TO WRITERS (EVERYONE CAN MAKE THEM). ZINES DONT EXIST AS LITTLE PAPER ISLANDS BUT THEY ARE CONNECTED AND BLOSSOM WITHIN A MUTUALLY SUPPORTIVE ZINE COMMUNITY."

Nijsten, Nina. Scissors & Chainsaws No. 2 : Diary Comic Zine Made in July 2020 During International Zine Month. Gent, Belgium: Nina Nijsten, 2020.

On the Zine Spectrum from Zines 101 by Lea Cooper, PhD. <--they have a Ph.D in zines!