Library Guides: Gender & Sexuality Studies Library Guide: Background Information

Background Information

You are not expected to be an expert in your chosen research topic area. A quick way to spin up on a topic(s) you are interested in researching is to read a general encyclopedia article.

Reading a broad summary enables you to get an overview of the topic and see how your idea relates to broader, narrower, and related issues. It also provides a great source for finding words commonly used to describe the topic. These keywords may be very useful to your later research.

If you can't find an article on your topic, try using broader terms and ask for help from a librarian.

Background Information Databases and Encyclopedias

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference offers access to a collection of aggregated and integrated reference books from high-quality publishers to produce a library of authoritative reference content with a one-stop exploratory search platform.
Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
A searchable, full-text database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources.
Oxford Handbooks This link opens in a new window
Part of Oxford Academic, each handbook takes an aspect of its discipline and unpacks it, explaining the key issues, the classic and contemporary debates on those issues, and setting the agenda for how those debates might evolve. Introductory and yet sophisticated, the handbooks offer authoritative and trustworthy guides to the scholarship that defines the field.
Access to full text of titles published by Oxford Scholarship Online for the following collections and updates: Archaeology (Sept. & Nov. 2012); Business & Management (Sept. 2009, May 2010); Classics (current through 2016); History (current through 2016); Economics & Finance (current through 2016); Linguistics (current through 2016); Music (current thru 2021); Philosophy (current through 2016); Political Science (Sept. 2009, Jan. & May 2010, Jan. 2011, May 2011); Religion (Sept. 2009, Jan. 2010, Jan. & May 2011)

Global encyclopedia of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) history
ISBN: 9780684325545
This encyclopedia covers LGBTQ topics in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East, as well as North America, and takes an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, using film, literature, human rights, politics, landmark legislation, activism, the arts, language, sports, and historical events as points of entry into the content.