LibGuides: UGS 302: Nostalgia and Popular Culture / Beronja: Develop your topic and a search strategy

Choosing a topic is research

So far, you may have a very broad topic. The way to narrow it down and find something researchable is to see what the conversation is around your topic.

Here is a broad topic idea: nostalgia and records

This is not a thesis statement - I can't write that until I do research.

What do I need to know in addressing my topic? This is a creative process and relies on your curiosity.

Search in the below resources and pull together any narrower topics and keywords you might want to investigate.

All in one search
Some of you can start your research here to see what is out there. If you need some definitions or basic info about elements of your topic, try Gale or Oxford Art Online.

The Routledge Handbook of Nostalgia by Tobias Becker (Editor); Dylan Trigg (Editor)
ISBN: 9781040106877
Publication Date: 2024-08-07
The Routledge Handbook of Nostalgia serves as a guide to the complex and often contradictory concept of nostalgia, as well as the field of "nostalgia studies" more broadly. Nostalgia is an area of intense interest across several disciplines as well as within society and culture more generally. This handbook brings together an international, interdisciplinary team of researchers to survey the current landscape and identify common trends, achievements, and gaps in existing literature. Comprising 45 chapters, the volume covers the following topics: Disciplinary perspectives of nostalgias including philosophy, history, literature, and psychology. Conceptual aspects of nostalgia including homesickness, temporality, affectivity, and memory. Historical and political dimensions such as afro-nostalgia, populism, feminism, and queer nostalgia. Spatial and material aspects of nostalgia including ruins, regionalism, and objects. Media-related nostalgia such as analogue and digital nostalgia, reboots, revivals, gaming, and graphic novels. Essential reading for students and researchers working in nostalgia studies, this book will also be beneficial to related disciplines such as philosophy, anthropology, geography, history, and literature; cultural, media, heritage, museum, and film studies courses; and more generally for readers interested in how the past is represented and used in the present. Chapter 18 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

Now, how do experts/scholars talk about your topic?

Your next step is to identify experts - who might care about your topic, or who could offer answers to your questions?

When you search for your topic on the library website, you are able to see the top disciplines that are discussing your topic and you can narrow the perspective down:

Your next steps are to learn how these experts talk about your topic and what specific controversies you can narrow down to. Take keywords from titles, abstracts and other article descriptors:

nostalgia	records	Why would someone be nostalgic?
vintage	vinyl	memory
memory	lps	culture
retro	music	identity
	analog	consumerism
	legacy	consumption
		marketing
		community

Topics suggested by your professor

As is stated on your Canvas site, you may come up with a topic outside of these suggestions,

Nostalgia for the American Frontier

Nostalgia for the Cold War

Nostalgia for the 00s,1990s/1980s/1970s/60s/50s/40s/30s...

Immigrant Nostalgia/Nostalgia for Homeland

Nostalgia in African-American culture

Nostalgia and Fashion/Retro/Vintage

Nostalgia and Pop Music

Nostalgia and Television

Nostalgia and Marketing

Nostalgia and Contemporary Politics

Nostalgia and Social Media

Queer Nostalgia

Yugonostalgia (nostalgia for former Yugoslavia)

Ostalgie (nostalgia for the former German Democratic Republic)

Nostalgia for the USSR/former Soviet Union