Subject Guide - Gender Studies

At Penrose Library and most academic libraries, we organize our books and information around the Library of Congress Classification. Some of the Subject Headings reflect outdated and noninclusive vocabulary that is offensive and no longer considered appropriate. For example, LOC still uses the term "transsexuality," and at times that is classified in RQ under "psychosexual conditions."

Most materials on a variety of queer identities are found under the HQ subclassification, which is the LC Classification for marriage, family, and women. 

Librarians at Penrose are eager to help students, staff, and faculty navigate the catalog. We are happy to answer any questions about the Library of Congress Classifications and Subject Headings. 

Below are further readings on bias and harmful language within LC Subject Headings and Critical Cataloging.

A project library staff are currently working on is incorporating Homosaurus headings into our catalog to better reflect the way people describe themselves and reduce the amount of harmful and outdated language in our catalog. 

Most library databases and online catalogs have a specific search language that lets you combine keywords in specific ways for a more efficient search. 

"gender inequality"

In phrase searching, use quotation marks to enclose a phrase or words that must appear together in a document. "gender inequality" will give more specific results than the individual words gender and inequality.

"lgbt adoption" AND law

Use AND to connect words that must appear in a document. This will narrow your search results. Most databases assume you mean AND in between keywords that you type in.

"gender role" OR "gender identity"

Use OR if only one word must appear in a document. This will broaden your search results. It is especially effective for synonyms or equivalent concepts.

Combining search terms with AND, OR, and NOT is called Boolean searching. There is an explanation here.

homosexual*

Use an asterisk to truncate a word and allow for different endings. homosexual* should return results including the words homosexual, homosexuals, and homosexuality. lgbt* returns results with lgbt, lgbtq, lgbtqia+, etc. 

Due to the often-changing language within the LGBTQIA+ community, one way to make sure you are capturing the most resources appropriate to your research and potentially covering a wider time period is to add (homosexual* OR lgbt* OR queer) to your searches. For example, representation AND (homosexual* OR lgbt* OR queer)

Queer methods have been said to "offer a framework for 'making space for what is' as they illuminate the messy and chaotic interstices across theory, lived experience, and practice."

In the same way queerness rejects limits and oppressive boundaries, queer methods "showcases the risks associated with limiting our knowledge of gender and sexuality only to that which is empirically observable and closely linked to existing categories."

Queer Social Research Methods:

1. Question the origins and effects of concepts and categories rather than reify them in an allegedly generalizable variable-oriented paradigm, because these categories do not always align with lived experiences. 
2. Reject the fetishizing of the observable. If empiricism grants authority to categories that are operationalized into observable units, then queer empiricism means to embrace multiplicity, misalignments, and silences. 

Brim, M., & Ghaziani, A. (2016). Introduction: Queer Methods. Women’s Studies Quarterly, 44(3/4), 14–27. https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.2016.0033

If you're curious about Queer Methods, check out the library resources below: