LibGuides: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Resources: Find Reference Texts

Find Reference Texts

E-Reference from the Library
Print Reference from the Library

The American Women's Almanac: 500 Years of Making History
"This essential book illustrates the important events and figures surrounding the suffrage movement; literature, art, and music; business leaders and breakthroughs; political history and office holders; advances in science and medicine; and other vital topics."
A Companion to Gender Studies
"A Companion to Gender Studies presents a unified and comprehensive vision of its field, and its new directions. It is designed to demonstrate in action the rich interplay between gender and other markers of social position and (dis)privilege, such as race, class, ethnicity, and nationality."
Encyclopedia of Gender in Media
"The media strongly influences our everyday notions of gender roles and our concepts of gender identity. The Encyclopedia of Gender in Media critically examines the role of the media in enabling, facilitating, or challenging the social construction of gender in our society. The work addresses a variety of entertainment and news content in print and electronic media and explores the social construction of masculinity as well as femininity. In addition to representations of gender within the media, we also analyze gender issues related to media ownership and the media workforce."
Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History
"The Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History provides a global view of the history of LGBTQ, covering significant figures and events worldwide. Wide-ranging in scope, this encyclopedia complements courses in a variety of disciplines, including history, American studies, literature, psychology, sociology and others."
The SAGE Handbook of Feminist Theory
"At no point in recorded history has there been an absence of intense, and heated, discussion about the subject of how to conduct relations between women and men. This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to these omnipresent issues and debates, mapping the present and future of thinking about feminist theory. The chapters gathered here present the state of the art in scholarship in the field, covering: - Epistemology and marginality - Literary, visual and cultural representations - Sexuality - Macro and microeconomics of gender - Conflict and peace."
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies
"This encyclopedia takes an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to trans studies. Entries address a wide range of topics, from broad concepts, to specific subjects, to key historical figures, events, and organizations. Entries focus on diverse lives, identities, and contexts, including the experiences of trans people in different racial, religious, and sexual communities in the United States and the variety of ways that gender is expressed in other countries."

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Provides access to a large number of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and other reference books covering art, biographies, history, literature, music, religion, and science and technology.
Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) This link opens in a new window
Database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.

To locate encyclopedias and dictionaries in the library's 2nd-floor reference collection, use the blue Library of Congress handout to identify appropriate call number areas, and then browse.

Relevant sections for WGSS include:

HQ - Family, Sexuality, and Women's Studies

Highlights from the Reference Collection:

Encyclopedia of feminist literature
"This reference includes substantial alphabetically arranged entries on nearly 70 women writers whose works are widely read in English. While most of these women are from England and America, the volume also profiles Chilean, Brazilian, Indian, South African, Australian, French, and German authors. The writers selected are feminist in that their works have challenged traditional gender roles, explored female oppression, or critiqued patriarchal social structures. The encyclopedia also includes entries on some 20 related topics, such as "Domesticity," "Friendship," "Gothic," and "Spirituality.""
Encyclopedia of women and religion in North America
"The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America harvests the fruits of 25 years of scholarship on the history and current state of women's religious experience in North America....The encyclopedia is interreligious, interracial, and multicultural and is aimed at a broad general audience."
Gender : sources, perspectives, and methodologies
"This book serves as a primer to the study of gender, including women's, queer, and men's studies. By employing literature, film, art, history, and other disciplines, it identifies areas of critical thought and practice in gender and sexuality studies; provides an overview of central themes, current topics, and seminal debates; and offers resources for further research."
Nonbinary gender identities : history, culture, resources
"Reference sources identified include archives and special collections, theses and dissertations, key journals, and related organizations and associations. This timely resource--the first reference on nonbinary gender identities--offers an accessible entry into researching this topic. Written by a nonbinary scholar and librarian, this guide includes valuable appendixes that will aid every researcher and writer: a glossary of the rich vocabulary emerging from nonbinary communities; a guide to pronoun usage; a primer on sex, sexuality, and gender; and Library of Congress Classification information."
The queer encyclopedia of film & television
"From Dorothy Arzner to John Waters, from Alla Nazimova to Divine, and from Paul Lynde to Ellen DeGeneres, it's a queer, queer world. The Queer Encyclopedia of Film and Television is your indispensable guide: entertaining, authoritative, and concise."
The SAGE encyclopedia of LGBTQ studies
"This far-reaching and contemporary new Encyclopedia examines and explores the lives and experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) individuals, focusing on the contexts and forces that shape their lives. The work focuses on LGBTQ issues and identity primarily through the lenses of psychology, human development and sociology, emphasizing queer, feminist and ecological perspectives on the topic."
Taking sides. Clashing views in gender
"The ninth edition of Taking Sides: Clashing views in Gender contains 40 dynamic points of view, separated into 20 challenging, often contentious questions. There is also an "Is there common ground?" section at the end of each issue, which explores whether there is room for compromise on some or all of these controversial topics."
Women and violence : global lives in focus
"This important and timely reference work examines violence against women and gender-based discrimination around the world, providing a global perspective on why this kind of oppression is still occurring in the 21st century."