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Contact info
You can contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Sociology / Anthropology (moninder_lalli@sfu.ca) for assistance via email or via 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.
Selected reference works
Encyclopedias, handbooks or textbooks provide overviews, definitions and identify key authors and ideas.
- Encyclopedia of race and racism
- Handbook of the Sociology of Racial and Ethnic Relations
- International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences
- Routledge encyclopedia of social and cultural anthropology
- Sage eReference
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" link to find it or to initiate an inter-library loan request.
- ProQuest Sociology Collection - for issues related to class, gender, racism, sexuality and sexism and theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science.
- Anthropology Plus — Key database for Anthropological journal articles
- Social Sciences Full Text Access to a wide assortment of the most important English-language social science journals
- CBCA Complete Canada's reference and current events - scholarly journal articles, trade publications, dissertations, books, newspapers and magazines
- Environment Complete -- Comprehensive coverage (over 1,900 journals) in environmental and many related disciplines. Also available is fulltext access to over 200 monographs.
- Canada Commons (formerly, Canadian Electronic Library from desLibris) - for public policy documents from Canadian institutes, think-tanks and research groups.
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"
- identit* AND (communit* OR society) AND belong*
- "social relations" AND (belong* OR acceptance OR reject* OR exclusion OR exclud* OR visibil* OR invisibil* OR marginal*)
Proper syntax for Boolean logic (words that allow you to combine concepts)
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
- Contested belonging : spaces, practices, biographies
- Digital femininities : the gendered construction of cultural and political identities online
- Dynamics of Modern Society
- Indigenous Invisibility in the City : Successful Resurgence and Community Development Hidden in Plain Sight
- Mobilities and neighbourhood belonging in cities and suburbs
- Poverty and social exclusion in the UK. Volume 2, The dimensions of disadvantage
- Social beings, future belongings : reimagining the social
- The urban sociology reader
Browse search
Choose: Browse tab, change "title" to "subject"
Library guides
- 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
See the Student Learning Commons for expert and friendly help with academic writing, learning, and study strategies.