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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.
Essay
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 handbooks and encyclopedias
For an overview of a topic or to identify key authors, books, journal articles, debates or theories, start with the encyclopedias listed below.
- Cambridge handbook of identity
- Encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & queer culture
- Encyclopedia of identity
- Handbook of self and identity
- Encyclopedia of Social Theory
- Handbook of the Sociology of Gender
- Handbook of the Sociology of Racial and Ethnic Relations
- International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences
- Oxford handbook of identity development
- Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity
- Routledge Handbook of Identity Studies
- Routledge International Handbook of Race, Class and Gender
Find journal articles using databases
Searching the "Databases for a discipline" is a great strategy to view articles that have been written within the scholarly journals of that discipline. For help, refer to the How to find journal articles, What is a scholarly journal?, and Finding articles: Advanced search techniques [video 3:13 mins]
If full-text of article is not available from within the database, click on the "Get@SFU" to start a search. If the Library does not provide access, then use the Citation Finder/ILL tab to request a copy from another library (free) through SFU Library's Inter-Library Loans (ILL) service.
- Sociological Abstracts Theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science.
- Social Sciences Full Text Access to a wide assortment of the most important English-language social science journals
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, using either the Basic or the Advanced search
Note: In the searches below, search results have been limited by "Resource type" of "Books" and selected "Subjects"Combine different concepts using AND
- identit* AND ("social construction" OR "social norms")
- "personal identit*" AND ("social construction" OR "social norms")
- social theory
- identity AND social theory
- identit* AND "social group*"
- identit* AND ("social construction" OR deriv*) AND (power OR priviledg* OR "social institution*)
- Group identity
- "cultural identity" OR "ethnic identity" AND (personal OR self)
- identity AND (queer* OR LGBT* OR trans*)
- identity AND (queer* OR LGBT* OR trans* OR sexualt* OR gay OR lesbian*)
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")
TIP: Use "subject headings" found within the library record of relevant titles to find other useful book titles.
Selected books
- Ancestry Reimagined: Dismantling the Myth of Genetic Ethnicities
- Body Image and Identity in Contemporary Societies : Psychoanalytic, social, cultural and aesthetic perspectives
- Body studies : an introduction
- Constructing Sexualities and Gendered Bodies in School Spaces: Nordic Insights on Queer and Transgender Students
- Development as a social process : contributions of Gerard Duveen
- Disability and the sociological imagination
- Identical twins : the social construction and performance of identity in culture and society
- Identity : sociological perspectives [print]
- Identity As Resilience in Minoritized Communities: Strengths-Based Approaches to Research and Practice
- Making of White American Identity
- Mobility Impairment and the Construction of Identity
- New directions in identity theory and research
- Non-Western Identity: Research and Perspectives
- On norms and agency: conversations about gender equality with women and men in 20 countries
- Reconstructing obesity : the meaning of measures and the measure of meanings
- Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique
- Revisualising Intersectionality
- Social identification in groups
- Social identities : multidisciplinary approaches
- Social theory
- Social Theory: A New Introduction
- Studies on the Social Construction of Identity and Authenticity
- Undoing gender / Judith Butler
Browse search
Choose: Browse tab, change "title" to "subject"
Some useful subject headings for this course:
- Body identity -- See Body image
- Cultural identity -- See Group identity
- Gender identity
- Self and identity
- Social groups
- Sociological theory
- Sociology of Disability
Presentation skills
- Resources on developing your participation skills
- Resources to help you improve your presentation skills
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
Writing help
Student Learning Commons provides assistance and numerous, helpful guides.