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WGS 401: Global Feminisms

Find Search tools, how-to videos, and other resources to help you find sources for your 401 research paper.

Focus Your Topic

Developing a focused topic

It's much easier to search for and evaluate sources when you have a focused-enough topic. Focused topics get specific these details:

  • Subject- the Issue, cultural product, or action being analyzed

Examples: the right to education, bodily autonomy, Under the Udala Trees (novel), #IdleNoMore Activism

  • Context- the locations, spaces, events, time periods (eras), and cultural contexts associated with the topic

Example: West Africa, textile factories, 19th century, UN World Conference on Women, Māori communities

  • People and Organizations- the individuals, groups, and institutions associated with the topic

Example: Miriam Makeba, Amnesty international, Au pairs, South African National Department of Health

  • Guiding ideology (epistemology)- The ideas, philosophy, or perspectives that help explain or analyze the topic.

Example: Ethic of care, cultural pluralism, anti-imperialism

Tip: Find example of guiding ideologies in scholarly sources and class discussion/readings.

Brainstorm Keywords

Brainstorm Keywords

Example topic: How has the social media activism of Iranian women in response to the state murder of Mahsa Amini influenced Western feminist attitudes about veiling/wearing hijab?

Broader Terms: Social Media, Iranian government, gender violence, Muslim women, censorship

Narrower Terms: Instagram, Guidance Patrol and Moral Security (specific government agencies), Keshavarz Boulevard, compulsory hijab, Iranian women

Related Terms (synonyms): transnational feminism, State violence, islamaphobia