Computer Science Seminar: Lucy Simko (Barnard College)

Speakers: Lucy Simko (Barnard College), Elizabeth Gorman (Barnard '28), and Cora Sula (George Mason University PhD candidate)

Title: From A to Zines: Narrative Threat Modeling in Reproductive Health Media

Join us in the Barnard Zine Library on Friday, September 19 from 12-1pm for a seminar featuring Professor Lucy Simko, Elizabeth Gorman (Barnard '28) and Cora Sula, a George Mason University PhD student, who collaborated on the zine project with her in the Summer Research Institute this past summer. 

Talk Description: Post-Roe, people capable of pregnancy face a fragmented reproductive privacy landscape, with risks spanning legal, digital, and interpersonal domains. These conditions demand new forms of privacy guidance. We analyzed 212 reproductive health zines—a DIY, subversive, and collectively produced media genre—to understand how they communicate reproductive health information. Zines foreground embodied, first-person narratives interwoven with historical context, medical guidance, and activist messaging. We found their use of subversive or alternative medical knowledge enhanced credibility in contexts of low institutional trust. While some zines offer digital privacy strategies, many focus on avoiding institutional exposure altogether. These emotionally resonant, context-sensitive accounts illustrate threat models attuned to the entangled risks of interpersonal betrayal, legal precarity, and surveillance. We conclude with design implications for how zines might better support people navigating reproductive risk through what we call narrative threat modeling—a situated practice that communicates privacy strategies through story, tone, and form rather than technical instructions or prescriptive checklists.

This event is co-sponsored by the Zine Library, the Computer Science Department, and the Center for Engaged Pedagogy.

Light refreshments likely.