Library research help

For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies by email (moninder_lalli@sfu.ca) or Ask a librarian.

Essay  

Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process and steps to take to find resources for your essay.

You may also find this guide to be of interest: Feminism From Around the World.

Selected dictionaries and encyclopedias

Get overviews, summaries, key authors, debates and ideas from encyclopedias, handbooks or textbooks. 

•  A to Z of feminist philosophy
• Biographical Dictionary of Women’s Movements and Feminisms: Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries
• Encyclopedia of feminist literature
• Encyclopedia of feminist theories
• Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
• Encyclopedia of women and world religion [print]
• Greenwood encyclopedia of women's issues worldwide [print]
• Handbook of International Feminisms: Perspectives on Psychology, Women, Culture, and Rights
• International encyclopedia of men and masculinities
• Oxford encyclopedia of Islam and women
• The Oxford encyclopedia of women in world history
• Oxford handbook of U.S. women's social movement activism
• Sage encyclopedia of LGBTQ studies
• Sage eReference
• Women in world history: a biographical encyclopedia [print]
• Women's lives around the world: a global encyclopedia

For more, try Background information

Example research topic

 What is the impact of violence against women?

Key concepts: violence, women, impact

Think of synonyms or related words for each concept

Concept 1

violence OR rape OR assault

Concept 2

women OR gender

Concept 3

impact OR effect

Search strategy

Combine the three concepts.

(violence OR rape OR assault) AND (women OR gender) AND (impact OR effect)

Find books using Catalogue Search

Library Catalogue search guide

From SFU Library's Homepage
Choose: Catalogue Search -> Catalogue ->

Basic search: Catalogue Search

Advanced search
Enter -> Any Field: leave blank | Contains:  your research topic word or phrase | Resource type: Books

Find books, book chapters and journal articles by a specific author

To find books by the author Judith Butler, use the following steps.
               Any Field: Author    Contains:  Butler, Judith  Resource type: Books

Browse by author

This search provides a list of books (not book chapters or journal articles) by the author

Choose: Catalogue Search / Choose: Catalogue / Choose: Browse tab (at top)
              
     Change: "Browse by" from "Title" to "Author"   Enter: Last name, First  name Butler, Judith

Browse search for books "about" a particular author ("author" as "subject")

Choose: Browse tab, change "title" to "subject"

Browse for the person's name as "subject": 

• Butler, Judith
• Wollstonecraft, Mary

Books on a topic

For the above example of "violence against women", see the results from using Catalogue Search

Use "keyword" searching:

• (violence OR rape OR assault) AND (women OR gender) AND (impact OR effect)
  • You can limit the search results by "Resource type", "Books" and "Subject"

Above search can be modified by using "truncation" and other terms

• (violen* OR rape OR assault* OR batter* OR abus*) AND (women OR gender) AND (impact OR effect)
  • ou can limit the search results by "Resource type", "Books" and "Subject"

From the results, select a relevant book and check its "subject headings"

Other examples:

• "global femini*"
• "western femini*"
• second wave AND feminism
• femini* AND "research method*"
• "knowledge production" AND (femini* or "Women's Studies")
• LGBT AND performance
• "Sexual Objectification"

Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words

Note:  For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")

Selected books

• Feminist theory today an introduction to second-wave feminism 
• Global currents in gender and feminisms : Canadian and international perspectives
• Global Feminism: Transnational Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights [print]
• In their time : a history of feminism in Western society [online] [print]
• Renaissance woman : a sourcebook : constructions of femininity in England
• Women's movements in the global era : the power of local feminisms [online] [print]

Books about a person or a topic (browse subjects)

From SFU Library homepage
Choose: Catalogue Search -> Catalogue -> Choose: Browse tab, change "title" to "subject"

Browse search for books "about" a particular author ("author" as "subject")

Choose: Browse tab, change "title" to "subject"

Browse for the person's name as "subject":  

• Butler, Judith
• Wollstonecraft, Mary

Feminist methods

• Feminism
• Feminism -- [name of country]
• Feminism -- History
• Feminist theory
• Feminist theory -- Cross cultural studies
• Feminist Theory -- Developing Countries
• Feminist theory -- Encyclopedias
• Gender Identity
• Lesbian feminist Theory
• Queer theory

Non-western feminism

See the pattern of "Subject Heading" (Women's Rights) with "Sub-headings"  related to geographic areas ("name of country" or the  "region" of world)

• Womens Rights -- Africa
• Womens Rights -- Arab Countries
• Womens Rights -- Islamic Countries
• Womens Rights -- Southeast Asia

Western feminism

• Feminism -- Canada
• Feminism -- United States
• Sex discrimination against women
• Women -- Government policy -- Canada
• Women's rights
• Womens rights -- Canada
• Womens Rights -- United States
• Women - Suffrage

Reproductive rights

• Birth control
• Contraception
• Human reproductive technology
• Motherhood
• Reproductive Rights
• Reproductive Technology

Violence against women

• Human trafficking
• Rape
• Rape As A Weapon Of War
• Sex crimes
• Women Violence Against -- Prevention
• Women -- Violence against -- Prevention -- International cooperation
• Women -- Crimes against
• Women -- Violence against

Find journal articles

How to find journal articles
Search for journal articles on your topic using the databases, below. You can "limit" your search to "academic or "scholarly / peer reviewed" journals.
Use the "Get@SFU" link to find it or to initiate an inter-library loan request.

• Women's Studies International - key database for the discipline
• Academic Search Premier - Multidisciplinary index to academic & popular journals. Limit to "scholarly" or "peer-reviewed" articles.
• ProQuest Sociology Collection - for issues related to class, gender, racism, sexuality and sexism and theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science. For information of immigrants, racism, society, structural barriers, etc.
• Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America - Academic articles and Indigenous news sources.  Covers all aspects of Native North American culture, history, and life from the sixteenth century to the present.
• Canada Commons (formerly, Canadian Electronic Library from desLibris) - for public policy documents from Canadian institutes, think-tanks and research groups.
• CBCA Complete - Canada's reference and current events - scholarly journal articles, trade publications, dissertations, books, newspapers and magazines.
• ELDIS Gateway to Development Information
  • Gender guide & Gender-based violence

Primary source database

• Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 
  Books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies that document the different facets of women's activism in public life.

Feminist theory website

• Feminist Theory Website - "provides research materials" - fields within feminism; national and ethnic feminisms; Individual feminists

Writing help

For undergraduate students, the Student Learning Commons provides assistance and numerous, helpful guides.

• Academic writing resources
• Library Catalogue search: Academic writing
  • E.g. Writing effective course assignments : a guide to non-degree and undergraduate students
• Book a consultation

Library guides

• Library Research Tutorials. Animated tutorials on search techniques for finding books and journal articles.
• Library Catalogue search guide
• Where can I get this? Citation finder
• Citation styles: APA (6th ed.),MLA (8th ed.),Chicago/Turabian (17th ed.)
  • Citation or reference management tools to organize your sources & to create a bibliography using different citation styles.
• Evaluating sources