Integrating Zines as a Pedagogical Tool for Multicultural Education and Social Justice

Zines are do-it-yourself, self-published booklets with a long history of use as tools for activism in social movements, often featuring content rooted in fandoms, interest groups, social identities, or political education campaigns. The popularity of zines increased in the 1950s and 1960s, primarily through underground presses, and aimed to elevate the voices of underrepresented individuals not typically included in mainstream media. As a pedagogical tool, zines can help instructors teach from the margins and bring to the forefront the voices, lived experiences, and narratives that have been traditionally silenced, ignored, or erased in academic literature or curriculum. This article outlines a three-step pedagogical framework for integrating zines into the university classroom. Rooted in the author’s professional praxis from the 2023–2025 school years, this framework aims to foster the development of critical consciousness and community-based civic engagement among undergraduates and graduate students, providing a pedagogical imperative for multicultural and social justice education.