Skip to Main Content
Wellesley College Research Guides

AFR 212/ENG 279: Black Women Writers

Welcome!

This guide offers some useful starting places and strategies for doing research for this course. I'm happy to consult with you on any aspect of your research, from developing a research question to finding, evaluating, and citing sources.  – Karen Storz, Research & Instruction Librarian

Make an appointment with me!

Find Scholarly Articles & Books

The databases listed here are just a selection of what is available through Wellesley. See our Databases list and browse by Subject or Content type to find other databases relevant to your research.  

Find Background & Overviews

Search these databases to find biographies, overviews of a literary topics and theories, author interviews, and other background information. You can also find these kinds of articles in Literature Online (LION) database above, by choosing Reference Works.

Find Books through the Library Catalog

Selected Books

Search Tips

Use quotation marks " " to search words as a phrase. This will narrow your results.

"science fiction"

Use AND to combine multiple concepts in your search. This will narrow your results.

"science fiction" AND black AND feminism

Use OR to find different ways your topic could be expressed. This will expand your results. Group these related terms in parentheses, so the database interprets them first. The following search will find results that have "science fiction" along with any one of the terms in the first set of parentheses and any one of the terms in the second set.

"science fiction" AND (black OR "african american") AND (feminism OR womanism)

Use an asterisk * to find variant endings. This will expand your results. For example, feminis* will find feminist, feminists, feminism.

"science fiction" AND (black OR "african american") AND (feminis* OR womanis*)

Find Books in Clapp

Quick Guide to Clapp Library Locations

 
  • Books & Videos Call Numbers A-D
  • Recreational Reading
  • Knapp Maker Space & Multimedia Center
  • Computer Classroom

 

 First Floor
 
  • Books & Videos Call Numbers E-H
  • Research Help Desk
  • Reference Books
  • Reserves
  • PLTC

 

 Second Floor
 
  • Computing Help Desk
  • Books & Videos Call Numbers J-PQ


 

 Third Floor
 
  • Books & Videos Call Numbers PR-Z
  • Archives
  • Special Collections
  • Book Arts Lab

 

 Fourth Floor

 

How to find items by call number