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Finding sources without keyword searching
Finding sources without keyword searching
As I mentioned before, searching by keywords in the Humanities can be tricky. However, once you have one scholarly source, it is much easier to use that source to find related scholarship. As you learned in Winter quarter, scholars regularly engage in debate through their academic publications. You can track some of that scholarly conversation through looking carefully at citations (i.e. bibliographies and notes) as well as citation tools.
Bibliographies
Bibliographies
An article (or book's) bibliography is one of the easiest ways to track a scholarly conversation: what other scholars or works did your article's author find important enough to include?
Use bibliographies (or footnotes/endnotes) to find other potential titles, and then look them up in Google Scholar or Library Search.
"Cited By" or "Related article"
"Cited By" or "Related article"
Google Scholar (and some other databases) have "Cited By" links or tools. These tools connect you to other articles that cited the source you were initially searching.
In the example on the right, I searched for the title Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum. The title comes up as the first result, and it says "Cited by 113." That means Google Scholar found 469 other books, articles, etc. that might have cited Exhibiting Blackness.
Author "stalking"
Author "stalking"
Scholars tend to be experts in a fairly narrow field. So, if you find a great article or book by a particular scholar, it might be good to "stalk" that scholar online - what else did they write? Doing a general Google search might also turn up conference papers, symposia, or other information that helps you understand where this scholar fits within a broader scholarly debate about a topic.
In the example on the left, I know that Rosemarie Garland Thomson wrote the book Extraordinary Bodies. What else did she write? A search in Library Search or Google Scholar brings up numerous other books, articles, and essays she has written, and a simple Google web search leads me to various websites, news articles, and even videos of her presentations.
Journal browsing
Journal browsing
If you find a great article from an academic journal, it might be worthwhile checking out the journal itself. Often, journals carry other articles that might have similar methodologies or areas of focus. Often, journals allow you to "Search within Journal" to explore keywords. Alternatively, you can browse through issues to see if there is content related to your topic.
In any case, it's a good practice to look up a journal to learn more about what it typically publishes.
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