SFU Library Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Collections Policy

The Department of Women's Studies was established at Simon Fraser University in September 1975. SFU was the first university in Canada to develop a credit Women's Studies Program. The very first credit course (Geography of Gender) was offered in 1971 and in 1975, the SFU Senate approved the motion to create a Minor in Women's Studies. By 1999/2000 almost 650 students were enrolled in over 40 Women's Studies courses. The Master's program in Women's Studies was established in 1985, and the first studenst were admitted to a Ph.D Program in 2004. As of 2008, 250 students have graduated with a degree in Women's Studies, including the first student with a Ph.D.in Women's Studies (2008). Click here to learn more of the history of the Department.

A central purpose of SFU's Women's Studies Dept. is to undertake a comprehensive exploration of women's experiences and achievements, and to develop new criteria and methods for the appraisal of women's status. It welcomes students interested in the study of women, gender, sexuality, and feminism. The department’s interdisciplinary degree programs and faculty offer courses in a wide range of subject areas in the social sciences, humanities, natural/applied sciences, and contemporary arts.

The students may earn an undergraduate major or minor in Women’s Studies, or a minor in Gender Studies. Both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies are offered to graduate students. A comprehensive Ph.D. reading list can be found on the Department's site. Please note that for fall semester of 2009 only, the Department is not taking in new applications for M.A. or Ph.D. programs.

At the undergraduate level, the Department currently offers both a major and a minor program, as well as an extended minor in Women's Studies. Additionally, students may enroll in a joint major that combines Women's Studies with one of the following areas: English, Criminology, History, Humanities, Political Science, Psychology, or Sociology/Anthropology. Students may also participate in Co-op education or Action Research exchange (ARX ).

There are currently 5 full time faculty in Women's Studies. There are 3 faculty members who hold joint appointments with other departments: Contemporary Arts, Political Science and Canada Research Chair (Women's Studies and Sociology/Anthropology). In addition, there are 9 faculty members that are Associate Members of Women's Studies from other deparments: Criminology, Health Sciences, History, Humanities, Library (Liaison Librarian for Women's Studies), Public Policy, Sociology/Anthropology, and the Director of Explorations Program at the Surrey Campus. There is 1 Adjunct faculty member from Dean of Arts Office.

The Department is home to the Ruth Wynn Woodward (RWW) Professor of Women's Studies.  The RWW Chair which was inaugurated in 1985, is an appointed for a one-year or a two-year term.  This position, which has the distinction of being the first Endowed Chair at SFU, has a special mandate to promote teaching, research and community outreach related to women's issues and achievements in all parts of BC and the Yukon. In addition to teaching, an annual conference, symposium or a series of events are held with a view to promoting issues of importance to women that are aimed at reaching the general public.

The School’s course and research areas are:

Faculty Research:
 
 

Undergraduate Courses:
 
 

Research Projects: Past topics include -  Delivery of Dare Care Services; Women,  Music and Healing; The Mission for
 Chinese Women in Victoria

Special Topics, such as: The Politics of Appearance; Public Policy for Women; Women and Disability; Women and the Law; Women, Power and Policy; Women and Music; Women's Sexualities; Women and Pornography; Women and the Media; Writing Body: Black Women

Graduate Courses:

The master's program in Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary program. It is possible for the master's student to create an individualized program of studies to suit the student's scholarly interests and goals.  The program is designed to lead to a strong academic research degree.  Students will be expected to develop and demonstrate intellectual and analytical skills within a specific area of study.

W.S. 800-5: Methodology in Women's Studies Research
An Interdisciplinary Seminar in Methods of research in Women's Studies. Students will examine theoretical issues in Women's Studies Methodology and study examples of research and criticism from Women's Studies in History, Art/Literary Criticism, Philosophy, Psychology, and the social and Natural Sciences. Emphasis will be placed on a rigorous and creative interdisciplinary approach to problems. Students will apply methods studied in the course to their own areas of concentration.

W.S. 820-5: Graduate Seminar in Women's History
This course will examine one or two critical issues in the history of women. Canada England and France are of special interest in this course, but students, with permission of the instructor, may focus their work on North America and/or Europe more generally.

W.S. 821-5: Graduate Seminar in the Psychology of Women
This course will consist of an in-depth exploration of both traditional and feminist theories of the development of female personality. Special consideration will be given to the impact of social and economic factors on women's psychology and the extent to which such factors are not taken into account.

W.S. 822-5: Graduate Seminar in Feminist Theory
Topic: Critical Intersections & New Directions -- This course will analyze and compare major feminist social and political theories, including those that have emerged from liberal, socialist and radical feminist traditions. The relationship among theories of sexism and political goals and practices will be discussed.

W.S. 823-5: Graduate Seminar in Feminist Art/Literary Criticism
This course will examine the development of feminist aesthetic theories with particular reference to literary, cinematic, and/or art forms. The fundamental assumptions of feminist literary and/or art criticism as well as the principles of art forms will be discussed.

W.S. 824-5: Graduate Seminar on Women and Social Policy
This course will focus on one or more social issues and policies in such fields as law, health, economics, social welfare, and science and technology.

W.S. 825-5: Graduate Seminar on Women, Technology and Social Change
This course will focus on relationships between changes in the technological and scientific bases of a society and changes in other major aspects of that society, particularly as they affect women's roles and ideas about women. Emphasis will be on Europe and North America.

WS 830-5: Selected Topics Graduate Seminar I
Fashioning Gender -- This course focuses on questions of style in western (European and North American) gender systems, with some attention to Eastern attire and the globalization of fashion.

WS 831-5: Selected Topics Graduate Seminar II
WS 840-5: Directed Studies
WS 898-6: M.A. Thesis
WS 899-6: MA Extended Essays
WS 997-0: PhD Comprehensive Examination
WS 998-6: PhD Thesis
WS 999: MA Field Exams

The Department has chosen not to focus in these areas:
Women in antiquity
 

Collection Development Responsibility

Collection development is primarily the responsibility of the Women's Studies Librarian.
Liaison with the Department of Women's Studies is maintained through the Departmental Representative as well as with other faculty members when required.  Regular contact with other liaison librarians and teaching departments is nurtured through the sharing of relevant information and materials.

SFU Resources

The WAC Bennett Library is the major location for women' s studies materials, including books, journals, videos (dvds), electronic databases, including image databases. 

The SFU Library has an array of e-books available on various platforms. These e-books are either leased on a subscription basis with content changing constantly or else the Library owns the content outright. Check here for further information on the various SFU Library E-book Collections.

Check out the list of journals for "Women's Studies" under SFU Library Serials Costs for each department. Please note that this list of titles paid out of "Women's Studies" serials budget, does not reflect the vast number of titles available at SFU. Many more titles are paid as part of consortial deals / packages. It would be more useful to take a look at the "subject" category of electronic journals for Women's tudies, Sex & sexualities (gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, Sociology, or other subject areas.

There is a circulating collection of music recordings and fine art slides, as well as a Canadian history slide set which includes images of women in Canada, which now receive a more limited use due to the online resources. The media resources are in the Media Collection, Bennett Library. They include 16 mm films and videos, but increasingly the new acquisitions are in the dvd format. The Library tries to obtain these, if available, with "Public Performance Rights (PPR), or " licenced for classroom viewing."

The SFU University Archives has some fonds of interest to Women's Studies. These can be found in the Library Catalogue, and are also listed on the Women's Studies Research Guide.

The Women's Centre on campus has a small library of books and periodicals which are available for research or loan to SFU faculty and students.

There are a number of Primary Documents databases of interest to Women's Studies, which are part of a larger list of Primary Documents databases.

Regional Resources

The University of British Columbia has extensive current and retrospective book, journal and microform collections to support women's studies research.  The Vancouver Public Library and other lower mainland libraries have book and journal collections available for loan.

Women's centres, associations and other groups may maintain local files, libraries or archives of interest to women's studies.  The Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST) Resource Centre, at the Vancouver YWCA has a library collection including books, curricular materials, government documents, conference papers, reports, journals, posters and audio visual materials.  A searchable catalogue for this collection is available on the SFU Libraries home page.

Consortia and Document Delivery

SFU belongs to three consortia: Electronic Library Network (ELN); Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL); and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL). 

The Library has also benefitted from the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), a national digital library initiative to support research in Canadian universities in the areas of social sciences and humanities. This is done primarily through national licensing of electronic information resources for the research community.

Document delivery agreements exist with all three of these consortia which allow delivery of journal articles and books from participating libraries in a timely manner.  Library holdings and direct requesting from over 40 libraries are accessible through the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) web page and from many databases, including PsychInfo, Sociological Abstracts, Humanities/Social Sciences Index, and Women's Studies International..  Print materials may be borrowed or photocopied from participating libraries through ILL services.  In addition, the Instructional Media Centre is a member of the Media Exchange Cooperative (MECC), which facilitates the borrowing of films and videos from other libraries in the lower mainland.
 

General Collection Guidelines

Languages: Primarily English and French.
Chronological guidelines: Primarily Middle Ages to present day.
Geographic guidelines: Primarily Western Europe and North America. Women in Asia and Third World countries are of increasing interest.
Types of materials: Primarily split between books and journals.  There is also be an increasing emphasis on electronic journals and web resources.
Date of publication: Emphasis is on current publications.  Retrospective acquisitions are of interest for important titles and backfile issues of journals.
Coordination and cooperation with other campus resources: Films and videos which are licenced for classroom viewing (public performance rights) are located in Library Media Resource Centre.  Materials not deemed of high interest for the library collections may be located in the Women's Centre on the Burnaby campus.
Other factors for consideration: Many women's studies books and journals are received through budget allocations to other departments, through the Library's approval plan process on profiles for other areas such as Sociology, Psychology, History and Economics.  Consequently, the Women's Studies departmental budget is relatively small in comparison to other departments, but this has not generally affected book ordering. The number of journals, especially in electronic format, has increased over the last five years due to consortial purchases by the Library.
 

Subjects and Levels of Collecting

Definitions of collection levels are derived from the American Library Association's Guide for Developing Collection Policy Statements, 1989. Collection levels will be applied after the subject categories have been determined.

Subject descriptors

Subject categories (descriptors) have been taken from Blackwell's Book Services Approval Plan Subject Thesaurus and the Library of Congress Subject Headings. These subject descriptors are guidelines to determine which books or forms are sent on approval to the Library

Other subject categories may be added as required.

B indicates that books on these subjects are received on Approval. F indicates that a selection is made from forms.

WOMEN'S STUDIES

Social Sciences division
  Applied interdisciplinary social studies division
    Cultural analysis  F
    Developmental studies division  B
    Population studies division  F
      Population studies - general  F
      Immigration & emigration  F
      Assimilation  F
      Internal migration  F
      Refugees & aliens  F
    Conflict & its resolution  B
    Violence  B
    Race relations division
      Race relations - general  B
      Multiculturalism  B
      Special ethnic studies division
        Special ethnic studies - general  B
        Black studies  F
        Native American studies - N. America  B
        Hispanic-American studies  F
        Native American studies - Ctrl. America  B
        Native American studies - S. America  B
        Jewish studies  F
        Arab ethnic studies  B
        Asian ethnic studies  B
        Native races studies  B
        Other ethnic studies  B
      Slavery  F
    Discrimination division
      Discrimination -general B
      Discrimination in employment F
      Discrimination in education F
      Discrimination in housing F
      Anti-Semitism F
      Racism F
      Sexual harassment F
      Other kinds of discrimination F
 

    Gay & lesbian studies   F
    Minority groups (other than racial or ethnic)  F

    Women (other than biological or medical) -   B
        frequently used with other terms - e.g.
    Women - Economic conditions
        see also: specific groups - e.g.
    Women in religion; Women authors, etc.
    Feminism    B
    Men       B
    Children  B
      Girls  F
      Boys       B
    Gender studies  B

    Social pathology  B
    Sexual abuse  F
    Crimes against humanity  F
    Pornography  F
    Sociology of youth division
      Sociology of youth - general  B
      Juvenile delinquency  B
      Juvenile social problems division  F
    Sociology of crime  F
    Sociology of middle age  B
    Gerontology  B
    Sociology of the disabled  B

    Crime & criminals division  F
      Crime & offenses division  B
        Crimes & offenses - general  B
        Female offenders   B
        Homicide  B
        Suicide  B
        Child abuse  B
        Assault & battery  B
        Sex crimes  B
    Victims of crimes (including female victims)  B

WOMEN'S STUDIES - RELATED SUBJECT AREAS

Social science division
  Social sciences - general  F
  Social science research  B

  Anthropology division
    Anthropology - general  B
    Social & cultural anthropology division  B
      Social & cultural anthropology - general  B
      Primitive society  B
      Kinship  B
      Tribes & tribalism  B
      Ritual (Anthropology)   B
      Material culture  B

  Sociology Division  F
    Sociology - general  B
    Social theory  B
    Social conditions  B
    Social reform  B
    Social organization & structure  B
    Social policy  B
    Study of groups  B
      Communal groups  B
      Small groups  B

    Domestic relations division  F
      Domestic relations - general  F
      Marriage  F
      Unmarried couples  F
      Divorce  F
      Intermarriage  F
      Polygamy  F
      Adoption  F
      Brothers & sisters  F
      Family planning  F
      Childlessness  F
      Parent & child  F
      Illegitimacy  F
      Unmarried mothers  F
      Foster care  F
      Domestic violence  F

    Single persons  F

    Sexuality division  F
      Sexuality - general  F
      Sex differences (Psychology)  F
      Sex education  F
      Sex deviation  F
      Change of sex  F
      Birth control  F
      Abortion  F

    Demography  B
      Vital statistics  B

    Urban sociology  B
    Industrial sociology  B
    Sociology of labor  B
    Rural sociology  B
    Medical sociology  B
    Social behavior  B
    Social attitudes  B
    Social change  B
    Sociometry  B
    Social statistics  B

  Psychology division  F
      Psychology - general  B
      Physiological psychology  B
      Cognition division  F
        Cognition - general  B
        Learning & memory  B
        Consciousness  B
        Reasoning  B
        Intelligence  B
        Work & fatique (Psychology)  F
    Creativity  B
    Emotions division  B
    Experimental psychology  B
    Clinical psychology  B
    Developmental psychology  B
    Genetic psychology  B
    Child psychology division  B
      Child psychology - general  B
      Adolescent psychology  B
      Infant psychology  B
    Psychology of aging
    Personal psychology  B
    Psychology of sex  F
    Sex role (Psychology)  F
    Social psychology division
      Social psychology - general
      Psychology of groups  F
      Leadership  F
      Interpersonal relations  B
      Interpersonal communication  F
      Nonverbal communication  B
    Criminal psychology  B
    Behaviorism  B
    Personality  F
  Education division
    Education - general  B
    Teachers - Women  B
    Pedagogy    B
    Educational philosophy  F
    Educational psychology  B
    Sociology of education  B
    Educational research  B
    Economics of education  B
    Education in developing countries    F

  History division
    History - general  B
    Political history  B
    Social history  F
    Economic history  B
    Cultural history  B
    Intellectual history  B
    Constitutional history  B
    Legal history  F
    Colonial history  F
    Diplomatic history  B
    Voyages & travels  F