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Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies

Guide to Resources for Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies

Finding a book

Call Numbers 

Books in academic libraries in the US are typically sorted using Library of Congress Call Numbers. This system organizes books by subject, so readers can find and browse books based on the topic of their research question. The call numbers are organized alphabetically in the library and each stack is labeled on the end with the call numbers it holds. 

 

Scholarly Books

  • Scholarly books are best found in the Grinnell Libraries catalog 
  • You can find book reviews for scholarly books in journals
  • Citation chasing can help find articles in conversation with scholarly books! 

Popular books

  1. We keep a collection of popular reading books in Grinnell Libraries Catalog 
  2. If we don’t have a book you would like, use Interlibrary Loan to request the book from another library
  3. You can also use your local public library’s catalog for finding popular books. Drake Community Library is a great option! 
  4. If you need a recommendation, there are lots of feminist or women’s magazines that publish book recommendations, or try using a book recommendation/ readers advisory website like Book Riot. 
     

Finding Popular Cultural Materials

Since popular culture is such a huge category, there isn't just one place to search or one search strategy to use. Provided below are some starting suggestions. 

 

  1. Popular culture magazines, both online and print, typically suggest and discuss a wide range of popular culture resources. A feminist magazine is a good place to start looking for popular culture suggestions
  2. To see if there is a piece of popular culture that is gaining scholarly attention, try searching for the type of source or genre of the source in GenderWatch or another database. You will likely not get very many results if you search specific item titles like “maintenance phase” (unless they are extremely popular like the Barbie film) but searching “podcast” may lead to some good podcast recommendations. 

Magazine Database: PressReader

You can find several relevant magazines in the PressReader database! Popular magazines ranging from Cosmopolitan  to Newsweek are available, as well as magazines from all over the world in a variety of languages. 
 

Other Online Magazines

There are several online magazines that cater to a female audience. Below are a few examples: 

Other Sources

In addition to the Film & Video section of this guide, check the following:

There are several feminist thinkers who are involved in podcasting. Podcasts can be found with Podcatchers like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Besides checking magazines or other materials for recommendations, see the below “Finding Reliable Social Media” to find websites or social media accounts that advertise podcasts. 
 

Additionally, you can search Google Arts and Culture for online exhibits, collections and themes for relevant art work. 
 

Finding Reliable Social Media

Blogs

  1. Lots of academics, Institutional departments,  and feminist activist keep blogs because blogs are an easier and faster format for keeping up with the scholarly conversation than traditional publishing 
  2.  However, this means you as the reader will need to be careful about evaluating the information since it is NOT peer-reviewed.
  3. You can find blogs by searching the names of scholars, departments, etc.  on Google. For example, see Dr. Amerlia Hruby's blog. 
  4.  Alternatively, you can use your typical search terms and include “site:.edu” to the end of the search to limit the results to academic websites. See Gender Matters: The Blog from the University of Buffalo Gender institute as an example. 
  5. You need to cite blogs that you use as sources. The APA Style Guide section on Blog Post and Blog Comment References is a helpful resource. 


 

Social Media Accounts of Reliable Sources
 

  1. Most organizations, activist, and scholars have some sort of social media. Searching out these accounts is more effective at finding reliable sources over searching for specific topics. 
  2. Most reliable social media sources will have an presence elsewhere (i.e. a fully-fledged website, a publication of some sort, a directory entry at an institution, etc). Trying searching for the poster and see if you can find other sources that cover the person or organization. 
  3.  Some social media sites are hard to search. You can limit a google search to a specific site and search for items that way! For example, enter “site:.reddit” at the end of your search for results from reddit
  4. Social Media posts are not stable, meaning you may have issues finding the material again after you first see it, even if you saved the link. Save the post another way either by downloading it or taking a screen shot. 

  5. You still need to properly cite Social Media sources. The American University's Citation Style Guide: Citing Social Media is a good resource for how to do this. 

Other Sources

How to use a Source: BEAM Method

  • Background: using a source to provide general information to explain the topic. For example, the use of a Wikipedia page on the Pledge of Allegiance to explain the relevant court cases and changes the Pledge has undergone.
  • Exhibit: using a source as evidence or examples to analyze. For a literature paper, this would be a poem you are analyzing. For a history paper, a historical document you are analyzing. For a sociology paper, it might be the data from a study.
  • Argument: using a source to engage its argument. For example, you might use an editorial from the New York Times on the value of higher education to refute in your own paper.
  • Method: using a source’s way of analyzing an issue to apply to your own issue. For example, you might use a study’s methods, definitions, or conclusions on gentrification in Chicago to apply to your own neighborhood in New York City.

 

From Hunter College Libraries "How to Use a Source: The BEAM Method"