Doing history research

HIST 1S: Breaking the Internet

Christina Bush (she/her)
Research & Instruction Librarian
 

Simon Elichko (they/he)

Social Sciences & Data Librarian

Students will submit a 10 to 15-page rationale for their project that contextualizes both their sources and their project within the broader landscape of slavery-related digital humanities projects.

Secondary Sources:
Books & Book Chapters

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

Schuyler Esprit, “Heterotopias of Resistance: Reframing Caribbean Narratives in Digital
Spaces,” in The Digital Black Atlantic eds. Kelly Baker Josephs and Roopika Risam
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2021), 123-137.

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.

Journals

• William and Mary Quarterly
• The Journal of African American History
• African American Research Perspectives
• Journal of the African Literature Association
• The Black Scholar

• Look at the table of contents
• Identify an article that seems interesting
• Look at the article - what type of article is it?
  • Original research, book review, review essay, something else?

Identifying scholarly books and articles

• 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, NYU, University of North Carolina
  • 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?

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)

Databases

• JSTOR
• Project Muse
• America History & Life (US history)
• Historical Abstracts (everywhere else)

Go to Tripod or swarthmore.edu/libraries

You can read books online and borrow physical copies from the TriCo libraries.

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

  Swat          Haverford      Bryn Mawr

You can use library materials from TriCo and beyond

History Databases

Finding journal articles and book reviews

1. Start from Tripod or swarthmore.edu/libraries.
2. Follow the link to Database Finder.
3. Go to America, History and Life. Click the yellow S to connect.

Quakers slavery → 81 results

Research Help & Advice

Make an appointment:

• Christina's appointment scheduler
  • Email cbush1@swarthmore.edu
• Simon's appointment scheduler
  • Email selichk1@swarthmore.edu

Special collections questions

• Contact specialcollections@swarthmore.edu
• Make an appointment to see materials and/or consult an archivist
   

More options:

• Email librarian@swarthmore.edu
• Use Tripod Chat