Contact info

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.

Research process

Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process, or in other words how to find materials for your essay.

Definitions and theories

Use encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks to obtain definitions and overviews of a topic and also to identify key authors.

• A-Z of gender and sexuality : from Ace to Ze
• Encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & queer culture
• Global encyclopedia of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) history
• Greenwood encyclopedia of LGBT issues worldwide
• Handbook on gender and health
• Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing: A Blueprint for the 21st Century
• Oxford handbook of stigma, discrimination, and health
• Palgrave handbook of gender and healthcare
• Routledge international handbook of critical mental health
• Routledge Handbook of Queer African studies
• Routledge handbook of sexuality, health and rights
• Rowman & Littlefield handbook of transgender studies
• Sage encyclopedia of LGBTQ studies
• Transgender : a Reference Handbook
• Transgender encyclopedia

Find journal articles

How to find journal articles tutorial. 

What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?

If the full-text of the article is not available within the database then 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.
• Medline with Full Text (EBSCO) - Provides articles from worldwide biomedical and health literature, covering research, clinical practice, administration, policy issues, and health care services. Available to current students, faculty and staff members (and alumni and external SFU cardholders from within the library).
• Global Health  - Provides information on international health, biomedical life sciences, non-communicable diseases, public health nutrition, food safety and hygiene, and much more from around the world.

Selected journals

• International Journal of Transgender Health
  • formerly (2005-2019): The international journal of transgenderism
• Isis (by the History of Science Society) (from 1913 on)
• Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (from 1946 on)
• Medical Anthropology (from 1997 on)
• Medical Anthropology Quarterly
• Medical History (1957 on)
• Medicine Anthropology Theory (from 1983 on)
• Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (from 1957 on)
• Social History of Medicine (from 1988 on)
• Transgender Health
• Transgender Studies Quarterly

Find books

The Library Catalogue provides access to books, journal articles, videos, government documents and much more.  To limit the search results to "books", use the filter (left-hand column in search results) to "resource type" of "books."

Library Catalogue search guide

Search the SFU Library Catalogue, either the Basic or the Advanced search

Note: In the searches below, you can limit search results to "Online Resources only" and "Resource type" of "Books". You can further limit by using "Subject" (left-hand column)

• (trans OR transgender* OR queer*) AND feminis* AND (theor* or perspective* or framework)
• (trans OR transgender*) AND (health OR illness)
• "sex* change*" OR FTM OR MTF OR male-to-female OR female-to-male
• (trans OR transgender* OR queer*) AND (India OR Indonesia)
• (trans OR transgender* OR queer*) AND [name of country or region]
• (trans OR transgender* OR queer*) AND ("sex work* OR prostitut*)
• "gender reassignment"

Selected books

• A short history of trans misogyny 
• After eunuchs : science, medicine, and the transformation of sex in modern China
• As Normal As Possible Negotiating Sexuality and Gender in Mainland China and Hong Kong
• Asegi stories : Cherokee queer and two-spirit memory
• Being Janana : Language and Sexuality in Contemporary India
• Better story : queer affects from the Middle East
• Bodies in transition in the health humanities : representations of corporeality
• Brazilian 'Travesti' Migrations Gender, Sexualities and Embodiment Experiences
• Criminal love? : queer theory, culture, and politics in India
• Cuba's gay revolution : normalizing sexual diversity through a health-based approach
• Edges of the rainbow : LGBTQ Japan
• Introduction to transgender studies
• Current critical debates in the field of transsexual studies : in transition
• De-centring Western sexualities : Central and Eastern European perspectives
• FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society
• Gender affirmative model : an interdisciplinary approach to supporting transgender and gender expansive children
• Gender diversity in Indonesia : sexuality, Islam and queer selves
• Gender on the edge : transgender, gay, and other Pacific islanders
• Gender outlaw : on men, women, and the rest of us / Kate Bornstein
• Genders, transgenders and sexualities in Japan
• Global trajectories of queerness : re-thinking same-sex politics in the Global South
• Grassroots Literacies Lesbian and Gay Activism and the Internet in Turkey
• Human rights of the third gender in India : beyond the binary 
• Imagining transgender: An ethnography of a category
• Island bodies : transgressive sexualities in the Caribbean imagination
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans health inequalities : international perspectives in social work
• LGBTQ mental health : international perspectives and experiences
• Marginal bodies, trans utopias
• Mobilizing gay Singapore : rights and resistance in an authoritarian state
• Out : LGBTQ Poland [print]
• Out in Africa : LGBT organizing in Namibia and South Africa
• Politics of love in Myanmar : LGBT mobilization and human rights as a way of life
• Professing Selves : Transsexuality and Same-Sex Desire in Contemporary Iran
• Queen for a day : transformistas, beauty queens, and the performance of femininity in Venezuela
• Queer brown voices : personal narratives of Latina/o LGBT activism
• Queer comrades : gay identity and Tongzhi activism in postsocialist China
• Queer Korea
• Queer Palestine and the empire of critique
• Queer politics in India : towards sexual subaltern subjects
• Queer singapore : illiberal citizenship and mediated cultures
• Reclaiming genders : transsexual grammars at the Fin de Siècle
• Sex in transition : remaking gender and race in South Africa
• Sexual diversity in Africa : politics, theory, and citizenship
• That's so gay! : microaggressions and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community
• Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community
• Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies
• Transgender China
• Transgender health issues
• Transgender identities : a contemporary introduction 
• Transgender sex work and society
• Transgender studies reader / edited by Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle
• Transgenders in India : an introduction
• Trans power : own your gender
• What Gender Is, What Gender Does
• When states come out : Europe's sexual minorities and the politics of visibility

Browse by subject

Browse by subject (change the default "Browse by title" to ""Browse by subject" using the pull-down menu)

• Feminist theory
• Feminist theory -- Cross cultural studies
• Feminist Theory -- Developing Countries
• Lesbian feminist Theory
• Gay Rights -- Canada
• Gay Rights -- United States
• Gay Liberation Movement -- Canada
• Gays
• Gays -- [country or region]
• Gender identity
• Gender identity -- [country or region]
• Gender transition
• Health -- Sex differences
• Queer theory
• Sex and law
• Sex and law -- Canada
• Sex change
• Sexual minorities
• Sexual minorities -- [country or region]
• Sexual minorities -- Health
• Sexual minorities -- Mental health
• Transgender Persons
• Transsexualism
• Transsexuals
• Transsexuals -- Civil rights
• Transsexuals -- Legal status, laws, etc.

Find films

• Films on Demand - Search for "trans" OR "transgender" within the database.

Feminist theory website

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

Library guides

• Library Research Tutorials. Animated tutorials on search techniques for finding books and journal articles.
• Annotated bibliographies
• Evaluating sources
• How to find journal articles
• Library Catalogue search guide
• What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
• What is plagiarism?  Guide to common forms of plagiarism and how to avoid them

Presentation skills

See the Student Learning Commons for expert and friendly help with academic writing, learning, and study strategies.

• Resources on developing your participation skills
• Resources to help you improve your presentation skills

Writing help

See the Student Learning Commons for expert and friendly help with academic writing, learning, and study strategies.