Doing Research in History & Black Studies

Workshop for HIST 54: Histories of Gender and Racial Capitalism

Simon Elichko (they/he)

Social Sciences & Data Librarian

Christina Bush (she/her)
Research & Instruction Librarian

Survey results

What do you find challenging about finding sources?

Primary Document Analysis

One Primary Document Analysis (7-10 double-spaced pages) - 30%

Students are expected to submit ONE primary document analysis. A list of primary documents is available on Moodle. ...

 

Students must submit a proposal for their primary document analysis on Moodle. The proposal must consist of a description of the document, a tentative argument, and a bibliography of at least 7 secondary sources. Proposals are worth 5/30 points.

 

At least 4 scholarly secondary sources (books or academic articles) cannot be course readings. Students are expected to do their own research and consult the librarians for potential relevant scholarly secondary sources.

 

• The primary document analysis proposal is due Monday, November 2
• The final draft of the primary document analysis is due Monday, December 21

What do we mean by scholarly secondary sources?

Secondary Sources:
Books & Book Chapters

You'll often see chapters published in edited collections, for example:

Summers, Martin. “Diagnosing the Ailments of Black Citizenship: African American Physicians and the Politics of Mental Illness, 1895–1940.” In Precarious Prescriptions: Contested Histories of Race and Health in North America, edited by Martin Summers, Laurie B. Green, and John McKiernan-González, 91–114. University of Minnesota Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt6wr7rq.8.

Secondary Sources: Journal Articles

Explore scholarly journals in Browzine and Tripod

Example articles:

Tompkins, Kyla Wazana. ""Everything'Cept Eat Us": The Antebellum Black Body Portrayed as Edible Body." Callaloo 30.1 (2007): 201-224.

Sullivan, Mecca Jamilah. "Fat Mutha: Hip Hop's Queer Corpulent Poetics." Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International 2.2 (2013): 200-213.

Exploring the historiography

Useful tools and approaches:

Navigating the stacks

Following both references and citing sources

Subject headings

Book reviews & review essays

We'll try out some of these now, focusing on how to find interesting scholarship to contextualize a primary source from a given point in time.

Tip #1: Pay attention to the journal title

Helpful to get to know the major academic journals in your subject area
 

Browzine →  History → History of Geographic Regions → US

Journals have specialties:

• Sometimes you can tell from the title: Journal of the Early Republic
• Sometimes you need to look at the journal description: William & Mary Quarterly (early America)
• Explicitly not limited by time period, but frequently publishes research on the 19th-century and earlier: Slavery & Abolition

source: McMaster University Library

Tip #2: Find related books in the library stacks

Books on similar topics are often shelved near each other.

Example call number:
HQ 1163 .H55 2022

← H = Social Sciences

In Tripod, Virtual Browse shows you nearby books

Getting books from the library

1. Pair up with a classmate
2. Take the paper slip with your book title and call number
3. Scan the QR code to open the tutorial on finding a book in McCabe
4. Do two things:
        • Use the call number to find your book on the shelf
        • Find a second book nearby that looks interesting
5. Bring both of your books back here with you

1. Go to Google Scholar: scholar.google.com

2. Search for one of the books you found on the shelf

3. Instead of clicking on the book, click "Cited by ___"

What can you do from here?

Some ways to narrow down results:

• ☑ Search within citing sources
• source:history OR source:historical
• source:compass OR source:reviews

• Who wrote it?
  • Does the author have training in history? Another field?
  • What kind of expertise do they have about the topic of the book?
     
• Who published it?
  • University presses such as Duke, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, Chicago, Penn, Rutgers, Wisconsin
  • Non-university presses that often publish scholarly books include Routledge, Berghahn, Rowman and Littlefield, Springer/Palgrave
     
• How does this source engage with other research?
  • Do you see citations to other scholarship?
  • Are there notes and/or references at the end of the book or article?

Key questions for finding scholarly sources:

1. Go to Tripod: swarthmore.edu/libraries

2. Search for your book's title to find its record in Tripod.     

3. Explore the subjects used to describe your book.

• Scroll down to Details section. Find the section labeled Subjects.
• Click on a subject. What do you find?  (e.g. African Americans -- Medical care)
• What happens if you remove the last term (or terms) from a multi-part subject?
  • e.g. change Health and race -- Southern States -- History to Health and race

Subjects can also help you find books about your time period:

• African Americans -- Intellectual life -- 19th century

• Black nationalism -- United States -- History -- 19th century

• World War, 1939-1945 -- African Americans

• African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 20th century

Some books in Tripod are available to read online.

You can borrow physical books from the TriCo libraries. Generally you can keep them for the semester.

If you login to Tripod, you'll see the option: Request Physical Copy.

The book will be brought to the library front desk for you, usually the next day. Works for Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford books.

TriCo
Login to Tripod to request delivery (arrives 1-2 days)

  Swat          Haverford      Bryn Mawr

You can access materials from TriCo libraries and beyond

Useful tools for finding secondary sources:

Library catalogs

• Tripod   (books available from the TriCo Libraries)
• Worldcat  (books available from libraries in the US and beyond)

History-focused databases

• America History & Life   (journal articles about US history)
• Historical Abstracts   (journal articles about history beyond the US)
   

African American Studies Resources

• African American Studies Center
• Oxford Bibliographies 

General academic databases

• JSTOR
• Project Muse

You can get links to databases and other resources for this class on the HIST 54 Research Guide.

1. Follow the link to Research Guides from Tripod, then look for HIST 54 in the list.
    
2. Look under History-Specific Research Tools, then choose America History and Life.
    
3. Search for a very broad keyword (e.g. capitalism), then scroll down and set a Historical Period. Then search. 

Quakers slavery → 81 results

Time to explore

Get some practice navigating the secondary literature

Research Help & Advice

• Make an appointment with Christina
  • Email cbush1@swarthmore.edu
• Make an appointment with Simon
  • Email selichk1@swarthmore.edu
     

More options:

• Email librarian@swarthmore.edu and your question will reach the right person
• Use Tripod Chat