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About This Guide

This guide provides links to library resources relevant to work in LGBTQIA+ Studies, along with instructions on how to use them. If you have questions about research in this field, please contact the LGBTQAI+ Studies Librarian, Gina Bastone. 

Transgender Studies is an emerging, unique discipline. While it is distinct from LGBTQIA+ Studies, many of the library resources for both fields overlap. This guide has a tab specific to Transgender Studies, and you may find resources throughout this guide helpful for Transgender Studies reserach. 


Why is LGBTQ+ Studies Research Challenging?

The interdisciplinary nature of LGBTQ+ Studies

  • LGBTQ+ Studies is interdisciplinary – the field is rooted in Women's and Gender Studies and utilizes humanities and social science research methods. 
  • You will need to learn to distinguish between historical, sociological, anthropological, medical, and scientific treatments of queer and trans identities, and find sources that fit in with your research framework. This can take some experience.

Terminology may be offensive and inaccurate

  • Current and historical research may use outdated terminology.
  • Research, especially books, may be cataloged using outdated and/or biased terminology.
  • Some terminology may be considered politically incorrect, hurtful or even triggering.
  • Although you may want to avoid outdated terminology in your own research, you might need to use them as search terms if you want to be comprehensive, especially when searching historical materials and primary sources.

Historical Lack of Cataloging

  • Until relatively recently, material centered on queer and trans identities may not have been identified with relevant subject headings and tags.
  • Historically, some subject headings and tags did not exist.
  • UT's Black Queer Studies Collection was founded intentionally to subvert the subject headings and cataloging practice for materials centering Black queerness. To learn more about the collection's origins, see the Black Queer Studies Collection guide

Text for this section based on the work of Stacy Reardon and Jennifer Dorner from the UC Berkeley Libraries

Humanities Librarian

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Gina Bastone
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