University of Massachusetts Amherst Launches Health, Environment, and Arts Initiative with August Zine-Making Workshops
The Health, Environment and the Arts (HEART) Initiative team invites faculty, staff, deans, librarians and other campus leaders to learn how arts-based practices can enrich their own research by sponsoring two zine-making workshops that will be held on Aug. 26 and 27 in the Olver Design Building, room 270.
Zines, or fanzines – self-published, small-circulation publications – have long been used to process and share information on a wide variety of cultural, political and personal topics. In higher education, instructors from a range of disciplines have used zines as assignments to help students personalize learning, feel more engaged with course concepts, gain a deeper understanding of multi-genre writing, connect with diverse audiences and find a voice outside of traditional power structures.
The workshops will serve as a launch event for the new HEART Initiative, which is a 2024-25 recipient of a Large-Scale Integrative Research Award (LIRA). The HEART Initiative aims to create opportunities for interdisciplinary work that intentionally nurtures arts-based research practices and their unique power to develop and communicate resources and solutions.
Faculty across campus in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS), Elaine Marieb School of Nursing, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and other areas of campus have been engaging in research and outreach that harnesses the power of the arts to address complex problems in society, ranging from health equity to safe housing, education, access to healthy food, universal design and disability access and much more.
The HEART team members include principal investigator Aline Gubrium, School of Health Promotion and Policy; Sarah Goff, Health Promotion and Policy; Sally Pirie, College of Education; Marla Miller, history; Sandy Litchfield, architecture; and Elizabeth (Betsy) Krause, anthropology.
Pirie and Litchfield will be co-facilitate the workshops and materials and refreshments will be provided.