This zine is near and dear to me! I made it to accompany my comprehensive exams process. The comps exam is something that all PhD students have to complete and it usually involves putting together a reading list, and then sitting a written and/or oral exam. The reasoning, format, and goals of doctoral comprehensive exams have often been subject to both debate and lore about their difficulty plus breadth.
To keep me company through this daunting exam process, I made a zine. It helped me feel a little less afraid, inferior, alone and acted as an important space of creative reflection. The zine ended up being huge (over 100 pages) but I edited it down and submitted a mini version for review as part of my official exam.
You're welcome to download my mini comps zine below and explore the world I inhabited while preparing for my exam. (And, good news: I passed so I'm now an exam-questioning, zine-making, art-loving PhD candidate!!!)
A little bit more about the process:
When I first started my exam process, almost 10 months before the exam itself, I felt uneasy. I didn't like the fear and mystery associated with comps and it made me reflect deeply on the parts of the academy/university that I dislike (e.g. gatekeeping, isolation, imposter syndrome). As I started to work through my comps list full of readings about feeling, emotion, queerness, feminism, activism, alternative media, and the idea of 'making your own history', I got the idea to start a zine. Creating the zine helped me feel more connected to the readings. I embraced the zine-making format as a space of personal reflection and intimacy with readers.
I was nervous at first about submitting the zine for review as part of my exam and putting such a personal creation on display, but I felt it was an important part of my learning and preparing for the exam. To me, the exam and the zine are inseparable, complementary, a destined pair.
Some sources from my reading list & zine:
As you move through the zine, you might encounter some references to readings that were on my comps list. Here are a few of my faves:
