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Contact info
For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Sociology / Anthropology by email moninder_lalli@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.
You may also find these library guides to be useful: Global Health and Health Sciences Information Sources
Research
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.
Selected encyclopedias
Use encyclopedias, handbooks or textbook for overviews, definitions, and to identify key authors or concepts.
- A companion to medical anthropology
- Encyclopedia of medical anthropology: health and illness in the world's cultures. RA 418 E354 2004 (2 vols)
- International encyclopedia of public health. 6 vols. RA 423 I58 2008
- Oxford handbook of acculturation and health
- Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology
Find journal articles
The first three databases (below) will provide articles from sociological and anthropological journals. If the full-text of the article is not available, use the "Get@SFU" link to find it or to initiate an inter-library loan request.
Database for anthropology journals
- Anthropology Plus
- Sociological Abstracts - includes anthropological and sociological journals
TIP: In the non-anthropology databases (below), you can limit the articles to anthropological or ethnographic studies, by adding the following terms:
(anthropol* OR ethnograph* OR ethnolog*)
- 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.
- Women's Studies International
For additional information on health issues, try: Global Health list of databases
Selected journals
- Comparative Studies in Society and History
- Ethos
- Journal of Historical Sociology
- Medical Anthropology Quarterly
Find books in the Library
Library Catalogue search guide
Search the SFU Library Catalogue, using either the Basic or the Advanced search
- (anthropolog* OR ethnograph* OR ethnolog*) AND (health OR disease* OR illness OR healing OR medic*)
- (anthropolog* OR ethnograph* OR ethnolog*) AND ("chronic disease*" OR "chronic* ill*)
- (anthropolog* OR ethnograph* OR ethnolog*) AND ("chronic pain")
- ("chronic pain" OR "chronic diseas*" OR "chronic ill*")
- ("chronic pain" OR "chronic diseas*" OR "chronic ill*" OR psychosomatic) AND (women OR gender)
- (anthropolog* OR ethnograph*) AND (pain OR ill* OR disease* OR health) AND (stories OR narrative*)
- (cultural competen* OR cross-cultur* OR transcultur* OR ethno-medic*) AND (health OR illness OR healing OR hygiene OR medic*)
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
Use pull-down menu and select, "Source Types" as "Books"
Note: For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")
When you find a useful book, click on its "subject" to find more books on the same topic.
Selected books
- Boundaries of medicare : public health care beyond the Canada Health Act
- Chronic conditions, fluid states chronicity and the anthropology of Illness
- Contemporary Narratives of Ageing, Illness, Care
- Contested Illness in Context: An Interdisciplinary Study in Disease Definition
- Culture, ethnicity and chronic conditions : a global synthesis [print]
- Dispatches from Home and the Field During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Equity in health and health promotion in urban areas : multidisciplinary interventions at international and national level
- Global mental health : anthropological perspectives
- Health and wellness concerns for racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities [print]
- Health equity, diversity, and inclusion : context, controversies, and solutions
- Health policy in Canada
- Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness [single-user access e-book]
- Locating health : historical and anthropological investigations of place and health
- Medicine As Culture: Illness, Disease and the Body
- Mom’s Cancer [print]
- Nested Ecologies: A Multilayered Ethnography of Functional Medicine
- Reifying women's experiences with invisible illness : illusions, delusions, reality [print]
- When people come first : critical studies in global health
- Who we are now : stories of what Americans lost and found during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Women's narratives of health disruption and illness : within and across their life stories
Browse Books Using Subject Headings
Catalogue Search / Browse then change "Title" to "Subject" and enter your subject term
Also try the names of specific countries as "sub-heading"
- Chronic disease
- Medical anthropology
- Medical care -- Canada
- Minorities -- Health and Hygiene
- Transcultural medical care
- Women -- Diseases -- Social aspects
Websites
- CBC Ideas: How to think about Science episodes series
- Medicine and Madison Avenue
- Eldis Gateway to Development Information - try their "topics", "issues" and also searching for topics such as: international health, global health, health interventions, health policies
- Guide: Global Health - Userful websites
- Medicine and Madison Avenue - Duke Libraries
- Women Watch (U.N. Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE)
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
- Resources on developing your participation skills
- Resources to help you improve your presentation skills
Writing help
Student Learning Commons provides assistance and numerous, helpful guides.