Staff Showcase: Megan Lotts reads between lines with Zine Teaching Collection
The zine is a deceptively simple medium. Derived from the word "magazine," fanzines, or zines, began in alternative spaces, gaining traction in counterculture and the early punk movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
Easy to make and print, the low bar to entry is contrasted by the total freedom of creativity and message, all packed into a book as small as a Rutgers ID.
The rebellious spirit hasn't yet decoupled from zine-making, either. The punk spirit and DIY nature of the craft mean the format is a favorite among members of the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups.
Since 2012, Megan Lotts, an art librarian at Rutgers—New Brunswick, has made zines a critical part of her multi-pronged mission to inject creativity into the academic process.
Teaching and working extensively with students and faculty in the arts, her philosophy centers play as an important tool in both work and leisure. Through her work, Lotts reinforces that being able to visualize, touch and experiment in artistic ways might even be the key to redressing burnout.
Yes, even for those of you languishing in STEM courses.
Though her work as an art librarian involves a multitude of things, including hosting research workshops, one project has curated a life of its own. The Zine Teaching Collection, which lives in the Art Library on the College Avenue campus, is an eclectic patchwork of zines from across the world.
Despite this, much of what she collects comes from Rutgers itself. From strewn pamphlets picked up from travels to more curated submissions from student organizations or local artists, the scope of the archive includes a complex picture of life in New Brunswick.
"A lot of my collection, of what I have and show people, it's totally heavy on the Rutgers stuff," Lotts said. "Which I kind of love ... because we love seeing what people like us do."
The exact complexion of the Zine Teaching Collection changes depending on how it's shown, which provides a unique opportunity to tailor themes or curate particularly interesting submissions for viewing. As such, two viewings of the collection are as different as any two zines from one another.
One notable corner of the collection — laid out like a quilt across a table next door to her office — is a series of zines made by a recent class, where students were tasked with making booklets that contained annotated bibliographies for their semester-long project.
Each is lovingly made, constructed from paper and collaged in a thousand different colors, each as unique as the person who made them. The standout in the collection, Lotts offers, is an especially curious zine made by a student out of a pair of jeans, with its back cover featuring a back pocket stuffed with sundries.
Beyond these, the collection touches on education and taboo, from simple black-and-white zines made from marker on paper to elaborate, color-printed booklets with professional graphic design. Glitter-penned obscenities, scrapbook pages and nostalgic puffy stickers find prime real estate across the little pages. The Zine Teaching Collection runs the gamut from transgressive to heartfelt, educational to humorous and all the tonal spaces in between.
Available for scheduled viewing, the Zine Teaching Collection, in all of its forms, encourages students to take their learning into their own hands, embracing the slightly rebellious nature of the work in order to speak freely to their communities and the world.
Beyond her work in curating the Zine Teaching Collection, Lotts also runs events and exhibits, such as a zine vending machine.
