About
My roommate (graduating with a BA in Neuroscience) wanted to create a zine for her capstone about Trauma-Informed Care (TIC), as opposed to the traditional ER/hospital approach to caring for sexual assault survivors. The zine synthesizes her two years of research focused on rape kits, autonomy, and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs). Michigan State University has an excellent, unfortunately rare, Sexual Assault Healthcare Program (SAHP), which acted as a catalyst for the zine.
To help bring this zine to life, she asked me to create the visuals to accompany her writing. While I contributed sporadic writing and copy editing, my primary role revolved around art direction. I formatted Freifeld's prose, captured the essence of MSU's SAHP through photography, and conceptualized visuals to enhance the narrative.
Although my roommate was graded on this assignment, this was a passion project for us. We invested countless hours (as she will explain in the author's note) researching TIC, interviewing SANE nurses, and crafting a comprehensive zine on a sensitive subject matter. Our choice of language reflects a playful tone tailored for our intended audience of SANE nurses and influential figures in the healthcare domain. Our ultimate aspiration is to distribute this zine far and wide – further advocating for the adoption of trauma-informed care in all healthcare settings.
Four years ago, I would have never thought my roommate/live-in best friend would get the chance to collaborate due to our very different majors. But what a privilege it was to co-create something so meaningful together during our final year at MSU.
