May 27, 2025
The Gender Studies pre-major at GRCC explores how systems of oppression come into play in people’s lives. Through courses that center on gender, sexuality and LGBTQ+ issues, students are challenged to consider how gender and sexuality are shaped by what we see in our social interactions and our social institutions. The program helps sharpen students’ critical thinking skills through a combination of research and lived experience. With an emphasis on social justice, students gain tools to better analyze and improve our social world.
Assistant Professor of Sociology, and Gender Studies Coordinator, Dr. Emily Pain started a zine project with her class to highlight these concepts. Zines are a mini-magazine that share a collection of creative works and are usually made on regular printer paper, folded in half and stapled. “We talk a lot about what’s going on and how it’s impacting my students individually. It’s adding to their knowledge and understanding of current events while tying them to academic concepts,” said Dr. Pain. “This project helps students engage in social justice advocacy. Students can focus on gender studies concepts and theories in a tangible way.”
Creating a level playing field
Dr. Pain focuses on ensuring all voices are represented, heard and respected in their classroom. “The zines are a project that speaks to my educational approach of decolonizing the classroom. Thinking critically about knowledge production, dissemination and centering the voices of people who have been pushed into the margins. It’s about empowering students, especially marginalized groups,” said Dr. Pain. “Zine making encourages students to view themselves as change makers. It’s a form of cultural production where the voices of marginalized groups are amplified in contrast to dominant culture,” she continued. Zines are an open form of pedagogy where a student’s work exists beyond the classroom. “It’s educational, but it’s also about spreading the knowledge and that it lives on,” said Dr. Pain.
A group effort
Students work together and share ideas in collaboration with one another, setting the stage for many perspectives to come together as a cohesive team through the zine-making process. Using collage, written word, art, the list goes on, each zine comes together through the eyes of the students without limitations on what their final project must hold. It is a representation of lived experience through creativity. “Some students are sharing their own experience or basing their creative work on their lives,” said Dr. Pain. “It shows certain aspects like intersectionality are a real thing because it’s coming from someone’s real experience. They’re able to demonstrate how the systems of power can exacerbate each other or play off of each other.”
Zine Exchange Program
During the Fall 2024 semester, Dr. Pain was awarded the Innovations Grant covering the color printing costs of the zines. As a result, the Zine Exchange Program came to life. Dr. Pain partnered with faculty at other local colleges giving students an opportunity to trade, and celebrate, each other’s zines. The zines can be found in the Social Sciences Library, located on the first floor of White Hall for anyone to view. “It’s important to have media out there by marginalized groups to give them power,” said Dr. Pain. “Art helps people visualize and understand concepts in a relatable way. When students are getting out there and teaching about these issues from a social justice lens, it’s advocacy. That is an important piece of gender studies. That’s what the zines are about, getting students out there and having conversations.”
Brave spaces and advocacy
Dr. Pain provides space for students to process through how gender impacts all elements of systems and cultures. “We have a wide range of student perspectives. Students are teaching each other things. They’re gaining perspectives on many sides,” shared Dr. Pain. “We do a lot of journaling. If students have some resistance to a new perspective, they have a chance to think through why. I hope they ask themselves what is being challenged in them,” said Dr. Pain.
The focus on social justice and advocacy is not just learning about issues for Dr. Pain. They want to help students think about how and what can be done to address the issues in real time. “A lot of the courses have that kind of emphasis, especially Intro to Gender Studies (GST 200). We talk about social movements and allyship. I hope the students find ways to make a more equitable society. It’s one of the values of gender studies. It helps students enhance critical thinking skills to be able to analyze the social world and then ultimately, with that knowledge, figure out how to improve it,” said Dr. Pain. The zine project continues to be one avenue Dr. Pain uses in hopes to bring advocacy to life.
To learn more about the Gender Studies program or the Introduction to Gender Studies course, please contact Dr. Pain, Gender Studies Coordinator, at emilypain@grcc.edu.
This story was reported by Anjula Caldwell