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
• Ashgate research companion to queer theory
• 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
• Routledge Handbook of East Asian Gender studies
• Routledge handbook of gender in South Asia
• Routledge Handbook of Queer African studies
• Routledge Handbook of Queer Development Studies
• Routledge handbook of sexuality, health and rights
• Routledge Handbook of Sexuality Studies in East Asia
• Routledge history of queer America
• Routledge international encyclopedia of queer culture
• Rowman & Littlefield handbook of transgender studies
• Sage encyclopedia of LGBTQ studies
• Transgender : a Reference Handbook
• Transgender encyclopedia

Find journal articles

Databases let you easily to search for articles from within scholarly journals for a discipline.

• 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
• Sociological Abstracts - for social issues
• Social Sciences Full Text  Multi-disciplinary database
• Geobase - database for geography, which includes articles on migration
• 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.

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)
• queer AND (theor* OR framework OR  debate*)
• transgender AND (theor* OR framework OR  debate*)
• (trans OR transgender* OR queer*) AND [name of country or region]
• (queer* OR transgender* OR intersex*) AND Asia
• (non-normative OR non-binary OR non-heteronormative) AND (medic* OR health* OR illness OR surg* OR gender change)
• (trans OR transgender* OR queer*) AND [your topic words]

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
• Black Queer Identity Matrix : Towards An Integrated Queer of Color Framework [print]
• 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
• Cultural Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Asia
• Debates in Transgender, Queer, and Feminist Theory: Contested Sites
• Edges of the rainbow : LGBTQ Japan
• Feminist and queer theory : an intersectional and transnational reader [print]
• Introduction to transgender studies
• Current critical debates in the field of transsexual studies : in transition
• De-centring Western sexualities : Central and Eastern European perspectives
• 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 
• Island bodies : transgressive sexualities in the Caribbean imagination
• 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
• Politics of Sexuality in Latin America: A Reader on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights
• 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 in Africa : LGBTQI Identities, Citizenship, and Activism (Edition 1)
• Queer Korea
• Queer Palestine and the empire of critique
• Queer politics in India : towards sexual subaltern subjects
• Queer singapore : illiberal citizenship and mediated cultures
• Queerly Canadian : an introductory reader in sexuality studies [print]
• 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 studies reader / edited by Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle
• 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
• Intersexuality
• 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.

Terminology for LGBTIQA

• Homosaurus vocabulary (terminology) - although these terms are not used in the "Subject" list (Browse by Subject) in the SFU Catalogue Search, they may assist you when searching for information on LGBTQIA persons.

Feminist theory website

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

Presentation skills and writing help

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

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

See the Research Commons for expert and friendly help with writing support services, including the "read ahead" service.