Faculty Focus features highlight the innovative teaching practices, projects, and accomplishments of faculty across Austin Community College (ACC). Through this initiative, faculty are invited to share experiences ranging from classroom strategies and service-learning projects to research, presentations, and community collaborations. In this feature, Clare Murray shares how a collaborative, student-produced zine transformed a traditional research assignment into a creative publication that encouraged students to explore empathy, visual rhetoric, and public discourse in meaningful new ways.

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Research papers often conclude with a final grade before being tucked away at the end of the semester. In Clare Murray’s English Composition II course, however, student research became something students could hold in their hands, share with their community, and use to spark conversations beyond the classroom.

This spring, Murray transformed her traditional end-of-semester genre remix assignment into a collaborative, student-produced zine centered on empathy. The project challenged students to rethink how research can be communicated outside of academic settings by blending writing, visual rhetoric, and creative expression into a printed publication.

The idea emerged from what Murray described as a rare classroom opportunity. With just 10 students enrolled, each student could contribute a two-page spread to a single publication, allowing the class to co-create one cohesive zine rather than complete individual projects. “We can have something we can physically hold and share that represents the work we’ve done together as a class, while also learning about research, rhetoric, and information distribution,” Murray said.

The theme of empathy was a natural choice. Having previously studied empathy and rhetoric in graduate school at Texas State, Murray wanted students to explore how emotion influences public discourse, persuasion, and the ways people engage with media. Throughout the semester, students examined questions about how rhetoric shapes emotional responses, how empathy influences the way people interpret information, and why understanding such emotional appeals is an important part of critical thinking. Rather than viewing empathy simply as a personal characteristic, students in Murray’s class explored it as a rhetorical concept that shapes communication and human connection.

The project began with a guided research paper anchored in scholarly research on empathy. Students then expanded their work by investigating specialized topics that interested them, including healthcare, stand-up comedy, and true crime media. Once their research papers were complete, they reimagined their findings for a general audience by designing creative two-page spreads for the class zine.

The creative process encouraged students to experiment with a wide range of artistic approaches. Some created hand-drawn illustrations, collages, and handwritten designs, while others used digital tools such as Canva. Murray dedicated two class sessions to collaborative workshops, transforming the classroom into a creative studio complete with art supplies, magazines for collaging, snacks, and a shared Spotify playlist.

 As students worked, Murray shifted from evaluator to collaborator, providing editorial feedback on everything from layout and readability to design choices and printing considerations. The experience more closely mirrored the collaborative writing and editing process students may encounter in professional settings than a traditional classroom assignment. “It wasn’t just ‘I’m turning in something static for a grade,'” Murray said. “It had me in there with them as part of the creative process, which I think is more accurate to what writing [or] creation looks like in the real world, and felt more personally impactful for me as an instructor.”

At the end of the semester, the class gathered for what Murray called a “zine reception,” where students presented their research, discussed their creative spreads, and celebrated the finished publication together. Seeing months of work transformed into a professionally printed publication was a meaningful moment for the students. One student told Murray that seeing it in physical form after all the hard work they did “made her tear up.” Murray encouraged students to take extra copies home to share with family and friends and even leave copies in neighborhood libraries and other public spaces, reinforcing the idea that meaningful research can have a life beyond the classroom.

For Murray, that lasting impact is one of the project’s greatest successes. “I mostly just hope they learned that they can create a well-informed, unfiltered message in a physical form out of nothing, and it can go anywhere out into the community and be shared with anyone,” she said. “They can have an idea, have a message, and have a way to distribute that, whatever it may be.”

Looking ahead, Murray hopes to continue incorporating zine projects into future semesters while exploring new themes and adapting the format for larger classes. Whether students collaborate on a single publication or create individual zines, the goal remains the same: helping students recognize that thoughtful research can extend far beyond a traditional academic paper.

For faculty interested in incorporating similar creative projects into their own courses, Murray encourages them to embrace unconventional approaches to teaching and communication. “Don’t be afraid of scrappy punk-rock expressions of rhetoric and public discourse,” she said, “show students how good research can be used outside of an academic setting in really cool and creative ways.”

The Empathy zine is available digitally, and Murray also welcomes faculty, staff, and students to reach out to her directly via email at [email protected] if they are interested in receiving a physical copy.

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