RACE 121A: Introduction to Race and Ethnic Studies
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Why is Gathering Background Research Important?
It's important to familiarize yourself with a topic before you begin doing more specific and extensive research.
Background research will help you:
- Narrow your topic and focus your research question
- Find historical information, trends, agreements and disagreements, related to the topic, and uncovers gaps in your knowledge
- Learn the context of a topic -- the who, what, when, where, why, and how
- Uncover keywords you can use to do more extensive research
- Find additional sources on your topic
Reference Books
Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic StudiesCall Number: e-bookPublication Date: 2003Also available in print. (GN495.6 .C37 2004)
The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and NationalismCall Number: e-bookPublication Date: 2016
Reference Databases
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowFull-text reports on current issues including health issues, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. Includes background information, overviews, pros and cons, and sources for further research. Covers materials published 1991-present.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowOffers full-text access to over 500 highly-regarded titles from 70 publishers. Covers every major subject in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences from the world's best publishers of reference.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Reference Online brings together language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest and most trusted reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource.