WRC publishes monthly magazine "Engender"

By Andrew Ligeralde     2/3/15 2:06pm

The Women’s Resource Center released the first issue of its new monthly publication, Engender magazine, last week. Referred to as a “zine,” Engender features original content such as personal reflections, music and movie reviews, surveys, research papers and original artwork. 

According to Editor-in-Chief June Deng, the content in current and future issues will represent a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives. 

“The goal of a lot of these articles is really broadening the definition of feminism and feminist issues so that it’s more inclusive,” Deng, a Duncan College senior, said. “We are emphasizing the fact that there’s more than one definition of feminism and you should identify with whichever one you feel comfortable in. That’s why we’re reaching out to a lot of different departments, hoping to get stuff from different majors, not just people involved with the [WRC].”

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The writing in Engender spans a variety of disciplines, including a study of changes in Rice’s campus architecture due to the university’s shifting demographics and a personal essay regarding the author’s experience in the class Gender and Transnational Asia (ASIA 452). The zine also features several pieces of artwork concerning the influence of pop culture in social view of gender.

“There [aren’t] really hard and fast rules about what can and can’t go in,” Micaela Canales, a Will Rice junior and this month’s guest editor, said. “It’s not like only students can submit. We’re really interested in what’s coming out of the whole Rice community.”

According to Canales, the zine originally began as a monthly newsletter for volunteers only. However, the coordinators saw the publication as an opportunity to inform the community about today’s gender-related issues.

“Some people hear feminism and they get a negative emotion, or they think about historical things, like how the women’s rights movement took place a long time ago,” Canales said. “There are current movements happening right now that people are unaware of.”

According to Canalaes, the goal of the magizine extends beond simply presenting the issues; the WRC seeks to promote involvement as well as an ongoing community discussion through the publication.

“While one of the purposes of the magazine is to inform people, it also provides a platform to share their thoughts,” Canales said. “It was much more like, we were having these cool ideas — why not write them down and share them with other people?”

As the publishers prepare to release the March issue, they are already planning to expand the zine’s circulation and further the discussion. According to Deng, the WRC is considering adding an online blog along with the print publication to make it more accessible. Canales said the coordinators also want to increase their funding to support future efforts. 

“This was published using funds that come out of the [WRC]’s operating budget,” Canales said. “Our account used to be under student activities, so now our account is under well-being. But this funding is limited, given the scope of things we want to do, so we’ve recently applied for Student Activities President’s Programming funds.” 

For now, however, the primary aim is raising awareness of the magazine, Canales said.

“Let people know that it’s there,” Canales said. “That’s the goal this semester, to hopefully increase submissions.”

The zine is now available for free at the Women’s Resource Center and online at issuu.com/ricewrc/docs/engender_2015feb_page

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