1181 | 672 | Doing fieldwork, making zines: crafting space for experiential learning

In this paper I reflect on the use of assessment in field courses and how assessment design can develop field experiences into experiential learning. Zines are a form of participatory media that often make space for marginalised voices and alternative perspectives. Most zines are hand-made, self-published and individualised booklets that have a small circulation. They are do-it-yourself artefacts that combine text with collage and drawing to create a visual object. In my course students make zines to share field stories and research materials from the field, as well as reflect on the experiences of doing fieldwork. Over the last 5 years I’ve come to understand zines as a misfitting assessment. For example, zines cause plagiarism software to breakdown; zines disrupt common grade-related marking criteria; they short-circuit many of the conventions of academic essay-writing; and generative AI (like ChatGPT) struggles to produce a hand-made zine based on a specific field experience. But more importantly the misfitting qualities of zines make space for students to work creatively and visually with their field experiences. In their zines students are encouraged to develop a distinctive voice, and to write from their experiences. Zines offer a medium for questioning the production and authorisation of geographical knowledge, engendering a critical and searching curiosity about what counts as knowledge and who’s voice matters. Zines nurture more inclusive practices of producing and sharing knowledge. In the paper I’ll share examples of student-made zines to show how this zine assessment offers one way of making space for students to reflect on and examine their learning by making space for creativity, curiosity and collaboration.

Dan Swanton
University of Edinburgh

ID Abstract: 672