ART 252: Gender, Sexualities, & Feminist Visual Culture
Searching for Articles
When searching for articles, it's good to look in a few different places. This page includes a few good starting points for your research.
When you're searching for articles, developing a search strategy can help make your process easier. A few things to consider are:
- Keywords: write down key words, phrases, names, and dates that might relate to your topic. Also consider variant spellings of names, particularly those transliterated from non-Roman alphabets like Hebrew, Arabic, or Chinese.
- Databases: searching in interdisciplinary subject databases, as well as subject databases, can help you to broaden your search and identify more diverse types of resources.
- Related Subjects: often you have to think more broadly than your specific artist, artwork, or architectural example in order to find relevant sources.
Keep in mind that emerging, local, and/or currently practicing artists may not have many "scholarly" works written about them yet, so your search process may require some experimenting and adjusting. Remember that there may be sources that might not directly address the topic of your research, but are relevant to the work nonetheless.
See also: Art History Research Guide
Selected Reference Sources
Reference sources provide valuable, reputable background information that can help your research. These sources are typically meant to give an overview of a topic for people who are new to it, written by experts.
These reference sources may be helpful to your research:
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Oxford Art OnlineAccess to the "The Dictionary of Art" (formerly known as "The Grove Dictionary of Art") and "The Oxford Companion to Western Art." Offers additions of new and updated articles, thumbnail art images and line drawings displayed in the text of articles.
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Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography
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Discusses "...how various mythological, Biblical, and literary themes have been treated in literature, art, music, and the performing arts... "
Call Number: MAC Stacks Lower Level N7560 .E53 1998 (2 vol.)ISBN: 9781579580094Publication Date: 1998-04-01 -
The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art
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Addresses "...deals with all aspects of materials, techniques, conservation, and restoration in both traditional and nontraditional media, including ceramics, sculpture, metalwork, painting, works on paper, textiles, video, digital art, and more."
Call Number: MAC Lower Level N8510 .G76 2008ISBN: 0195313917Publication Date: 2008-10-06 -
Styles, Schools and Movements : the essential encyclopaedic guide to modern art
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A visual map of the period in the form of an 8 page fold-out is followed by articles on 100 of the most significant movements of the modern period.
Call Number: MAC Lower Level N6490.4 .D45 2010ISBN: 0500288445Publication Date: 2011-02-15
Databases
While you may find articles and lots of other materials in Worldcat, you can find much more by searching in other library databases. The library provides access to hundreds of different databases that you can use. Some of these databases focus on a particular academic discipline, others are interdisciplinary in nature. Some databases focus on a particular type of resource, such as news, film, audio, primary sources, etc.
Here are a selection of interdisciplinary databases that are good places to start your research:
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Academic Search PremierInterdisciplinary resource with popular, scholarly, and peer-reviewed articles and citations. Includes speeches, newspapers, and polls.
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JSTOR
Large collection of scholarly journals and books from all disciplines, with stronger coverage for the humanities and social sciences. Current issues from journals (the most recent 3-5 years) are generally not available in JSTOR.
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Google Scholar
Search across a wide range of scholarly literature from around the world. This custom link for Google Scholar includes the Macalester Library code and will display a "MACLINKS FULL TEXT" link next to resources available from Macalester Library. You will also see MACLINKS if you are logged in to the on-campus network. If you are off campus and don't use the above custom link, you can configure Google Scholar to display MACLINKS by customizing your library links settings.
See also: Macalester A-Z Databases
These databases can be helpful for finding more background information and research in arts and culture.
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Art Full Text
The main database for research in art and art history. Includes both popular and academic titles.
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America: History and Life
Index of scholarly journals, books, and dissertations covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada from before European contact to the present.
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Film & Television Literature Index with Full TextCovers film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
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Historical Abstracts
Index covering world history (excluding the United States and Canada). It includes hundreds of history journals and books, plus useful features such as the ability to search by time period.
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MLA International Bibliography (Ebsco)
The primary database for literary and film scholarship.
See also: Macalester A-Z Databases
Reviews and News Sources
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Access World News: Research Collection
International, national, regional, state, and local newspaper articles and video clips. Includes over a thousand international news sources from scores of countries on six continents, translated into English when written in other languages.
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US Newsstream (ProQuest)
Current U.S. news content, as well as archives that stretch back into the 1980s. It features top newspapers, wires, broadcast transcripts, blogs, and news sites in full-text format. US Newsstream provides key national and regional news sources from the U.S. and includes exclusive and preferred access to top titles, including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, and Chicago Tribune.
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Newspaper SourceFull-text coverage of hundreds of national, regional, and international newspapers, as well as newswires and TV and radio news transcripts.
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New York Times Archive
Searchable full text of the New York Times from the first issue in 1851 to 4 years ago. Includes full page and article images. Most recent years of the Times can be searched in US Newsstream or New York Times - Digital Microfilm.
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The Times Historical Archive, 1785–2019 (Gale Primary Sources)
Full-text and full-image archive to the Times of London for the years 1785-2019.
Museums and Galleries
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Metropolitan Museum of ArtIncludes more than 400,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum’s collection which may be downloaded directly from the Museum’s website for non-commercial use, including in scholarly publications in any media, without permission from the Museum and without a fee.
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The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)Link to the list of artists with work in MoMA's collection or who have been included in a MoMA exhibition. It is updated continually.
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Walker Art Center"Since its founding in 1940, the Walker Art Center has collected the visual, performing, and media arts of our time. A reflection of our multidisciplinary mission and the increasingly cross-disciplinary practice of artists, Walker Collections reflect a diverse range of artistic output, including painting, sculpture, films, performances, books, artist archives, and more."
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Midway Contemporary Art LibraryLocated in Minneapolis, "the Midway Contemporary Art Library serves to document, present, and preserve the recent history of contemporary visual art in a public context. Founded in 2007, its objectives are to research, collate, and catalog published material in an effort to provide the most comprehensive and accessible resource for research into contemporary art in the region."
Schedule a Meeting with a Librarian
Have questions about the research process? Don't struggle, reach out to a librarian for help! Students interested in research support can book a meeting with a librarian to:
- Narrow down research topic ideas
- Find background information
- Save time getting started with your research
- Use the library’s collections as well as worldwide and web resources
- Choose databases for discipline-focused research
- Learn more efficient searching method
To make an appointment, reach out to a subject librarian specializing in your topic.