Background Info from Reference Databases
Background sources are especially useful when you are just starting your research, but they can also help you throughout the process. These types of sources can provide a brief summary of a topic, explain important theories, define commonly used terms, and provide biographical information on important people in the field.
Research Tip: Search for broad-scope topics, theories, terms, or people in these types of sources. For example:
- bell hooks
- intersectionality
- ecofeminism
- Black Women Radicals DatabaseBWRD serves as a vehicle to center Black women’s historical political memory, scholarship, epistemologies, and leadership in socio-political movements that may not be taught in academia and in community and public spaces. The Database is free for educational use.
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Full-text detailed reports on controversial social, economic, political, educational, health, environmental, technology, and current topics. Each report includes an abstract, overview, background summary, current situation, outlook, special focus, chronology, pro/con, and bibliography. - Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window Database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. Provides searchable full-text e-book versions of over 3,500 reference works, including multi-volume encyclopedias, biographical collections, business plan handbooks, company history compilations, consumer health references, and specialized handbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc. in a wide range of subject areas.
- Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new windowCovers a wide range of controversial topics such as Abortion, Gun Control, Genetic Engineering, Censorship, Endangered Species, and Terrorism. Contains full-text newspaper, news magazine, and journal articles, government documents, political position papers, public policy statements, legal and legislative material, pamphlets, statistical data, biographies of social activists, court cases, profiles of government agencies and special interest groups, and links to more than 1,400 Web sites. Materials are labeled by reading level. Links to K-12 curriculum standards. The Tool Box provides guidance in organizing information, writing a research paper, and citing sources. Limited to 3 simultaneous users.
- Oxford Reference This link opens in a new windowCollection of 260+ Reference books; including dictionaries, encyclopedias, and books of quotations, includes resources in a wide range of fields.
Background Info from Books
A Dictionary of Gender Studies by ISBN: 9780191834837Publication Date: 2017This new dictionary provides clear and accessible definitions of a range of terms from within the fast-developing field of Gender Studies.
Encyclopedia of Gender in Media by Call Number: Full Text OnlineISBN: 9781412990806Publication Date: 2012
Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender by Call Number: Full Text OnlineISBN: 9780028659602Publication Date: 2007
Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) HistoryCall Number: Full Text OnlineISBN: 9780684325545Publication Date: 2019
Latinas in the United States: a Historical Encyclopedia by Call Number: Full Text OnlineISBN: 0253346800Publication Date: 2006
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History by Call Number: Full Text OnlineISBN: 9780195337860Publication Date: 2008
The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Psychology by Call Number: Full Text OnlineISBN: 9781446287149Publication Date: 2013
Women in American History: a Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection [4 Volumes] by Call Number: Full Text OnlineISBN: 9781610696036Publication Date: 2017
American Women Writers by ISBN: 1558624295Publication Date: 1999A critical reference guide, from colonial times to 1999.
Concise Dictionary of Women Artists by ISBN: 9781136598944Publication Date: 2013This book includes some 200 complete entries from the award-winning Dictionary of Women Artists, as well as a selection of introductory essays from the main volume.
Headstrong: 52 Women who Changed Science and the World by Call Number: Pollak Library 3rd Floor North Q130 .S93 2015ISBN: 9780553446791Publication Date: 2015Fifty-two insightful and inspiring profiles of history's brightest female scientists and mathematicians
International Women in Science: a Biographical Dictionary To 1950 by ISBN: 1280725508Publication Date: 2001This A-Z encyclopedia includes entries on women who made pioneering scientific discoveries, as well as others whose work was characterized by lifelong, dogged perseverance. Contains entries for approximately 400 women.
Latin American Women Writers: an Encyclopedia by ISBN: 1317726340Publication Date: 2014Presents the lives and critical works of over 170 women writers in Latin America between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries.
Shapers of the Great Debate on Women's Rights: a Biographical Dictionary by ISBN: 0313082448Publication Date: 2008The three waves of feminism are explored through the lives of the women who made history in bringing women's issues to the forefront of American society.
Sovereign Stories and Blood Memories: Native American Women's Autobiography by ISBN: 9780826359155Publication Date: 2017In Sovereign Stories, Annette Angela Portillo examines Native American women's autobiographical discourses and multiple-voiced life stories that resist generic conventional notions of first-person narrative.
Women Filmmakers by ISBN: 9780774850407Publication Date: 2003Women Filmmakers: Refocusing casts a critical eye on the often-overlooked work of women filmmakers.
Asian and Feminist Philosophies in Dialogue: Liberating Traditions by ISBN: 0231537212Publication Date: 2014International scholars put Asian traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, into conversation with one or more contemporary feminist philosophies, founding a new mode of inquiry that attends to diverse voices and the complex global relationships that define our world.
The Black Feminist Reader by Call Number: Pollak Library 3rd Floor North PS153.N5 B5536 2000ISBN: 9780631210061Publication Date: 2000This Reader explores issues of community, identity, justice, and the marginalization of African American and Caribbean women in literature, society, and political movements.
The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st-Century Feminist Theory by ISBN: 9781350032392Publication Date: 2019The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st-Century Feminist Theory is the most comprehensive available survey of the state of the art of contemporary feminist thought.
Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings by Call Number: 1st Floor Circulation High Demand HQ1421 .C52 1997ISBN: 0415918014Publication Date: 1997Brings together the voices of Chicana poets, writers, and activists who reflect upon the Chicana Feminist Movement that began in the late 1960s.
Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity by ISBN: 9780822330103Publication Date: 2003Addresses some of the most pressing and This collection highlights the concerns running throughout her pioneering work: the politics of difference and solidarity, decolonizing and democratizing feminist practice, the crossing of borders, and the relation of feminist knowledge and scholarship to organizing and social movements.
Indigenous Women and Feminism by Call Number: HQ1155 .I64 2010ISBN: 9780774818070Publication Date: 2010Proposes that a dynamic new line of inquiry - Indigenous feminism - is necessary to truly engage with the crucial issues of cultural identity, nationalism, and decolonization particular to Indigenous contexts.
Modern Misogyny: Anti-Feminism in a Post-Feminist Era by Call Number: HQ1233 .A686 2015ISBN: 9780199328178Publication Date: 2014This book addresses the nature, function, and implications of modern anti-feminism in the United States.
Postfeminism: Cultural Texts and Theories by ISBN: 1282136550Publication Date: 2009This book provides an indispensable guide that both surveys and critically positions the main issues, theories and contemporary debates surrounding the term.
Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America's Second Wave by Call Number: HQ1421 .R684 2004ISBN: 0521822602Publication Date: 2003This examines the emergence of feminist movements from the Civil Rights/Black Liberation movement, the Chicano movement, and the white left in the 1960s and 1970s.
A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman by
Publication Date: 1792One of the earliest works of feminist philosophy- written from an economically privileged, 18th-century European context.
The Second Sex by Call Number: HQ1208 .B352 2010ISBN: 9780307265562Publication Date: 2010; 1949Translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology, and a host of other disciplines to analyze the Western notion of "woman" and to explore the power of sexuality. Written from a heteronormative, white, economically privileged perspective.
The Feminine Mystique by Call Number: 1st Floor Circulation High Demand HQ1426 .F844 2013bISBN: 0393063798Publication Date: 2013; 1963A 50th-anniversary edition. Betty Friedan captured the frustrations and thwarted ambitions of a generation and showed women how they could reclaim their lives. Written from a heteronormative, white, and economically privileged perspective.
Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by ISBN: 1317588614Publication Date: 2014; 1981A classic work of feminist scholarship- Examining the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, the devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism among feminists, and the black woman's involvement with feminism, hooks attempts to move us beyond racist and sexist assumptions.
This Bridge Called My Back by Call Number: 3rd Floor North PS509.F44 T5 2002ISBN: 1438454384Publication Date: 2002; 1983Updated and expanded edition of the foundational text of women of color feminism.
Women, Culture and Politics by Call Number: 5th Floor South E185.86 .D382 1990ISBN: 0679724877Publication Date: 1990A collection of speeches and writings by political activist Angela Davis which address the political and social changes of the past decade as they are concerned with the struggle for racial, sexual, and economic equality.
Ecofeminism by ISBN: 1780329784Publication Date: 2014This groundbreaking work argues that ecological destruction and industrial catastrophes constitute a direct threat to everyday life, the maintenance of which has been made the particular responsibility of women.
