Sexual harassment and violence are so pervasive in STEM fields that we are second only to the military, according to a report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. As awareness increases, so do the activist-led movements to hold our institutions accountable, like the #MeTooSTEM blog and the many petitions started by Dr. BethAnn McLaughlin.

Yet, despite the high profile cases breaking like clockwork, cases continue to be swept under the rug and mishandled by the systems and offices intended to support us. There continues to be no satisfactory method for survivors to heal and prevent further harm from happening. Report to the Title IX office and have a gag order placed on you while the university maintains its best interests or confide in a professor only for them to be required as a mandatory reporter to divulge your incident to Title IX on your behalf. Discuss only amongst students and risk that serial sexual assaulters move more quickly than the whisper network.

Not only do the survivors of sexual harassment and assault deal with trauma and need healing, so do the activists and allies doing work to prevent more harm. So often, the activists themselves have endured and survived SVSH.

By making this zine, we hope to provide a platform to heal; to say the things you can’t say without more harm, and to convey with imagery what you can’t speak in words.

We hope this zine reminds everyone impacted by SVSH in STEM that they are not alone. We may not know how to fix the mess that sexual predators created, but we can try to do it in solidarity.

All works created in good faith will be published online, but we reserve the right not to include works that are hateful, discriminatory, or otherwise unproductive. Depending on our funds, we will include as many works as possible in the final printed zine. To support this project and help us print as many as possible, you can donate here or buy enamel pins. Upon completion, we will sell the zines online and in person.

Submission guidelines

• Intend to fill a page (8.5” x 5.5”) or spread (8.5” x 11”). Minimalist is fine.
  
  
• Try to make your imagery compatible with black and white printing in case others can afford only to print in black and white, but we are aiming to print the zine in full color.

• Do not include any personal information of others in your submission, but you may share information like the department and institution involved (we don’t want to get sued).

• If using materials to make a collage, please cite your sources and ensure you are modifying the imagery by more than 30% (to avoid copyright troubles).
  
  
• You may make as many submissions as you want under your own name, a pseudonym, or anonymously. In order for us to pay an honorarium to those whose works we include in the final print zine, please include a valid email address in your submission.

Submit your contribution!

If you'd like to support the creation of this zine, you can purchase our Science is for Everyone pennant pins or The STEM Squad pin, proceeds of which will directly be applied to printing this zine and paying an honorarium to contributors. More money raised means a larger honorarium and more zines printed. If we raise enough funds, we would like to send everyone who donated more than $15 a zine, so please leave your email address if you're interested in this if we meet that goal.
Thank you!

 Special thanks to Melissa Lee for allowing us to use her photography