Databases
Because research in Cultural Studies tends to cross disciplinary boundaries, many of the recommended databases are multidisciplinary or are offered by companies that allow the ability to search across disciplinary databases. Based on this determination, the following databases are listed in order of how relevant they may be for research in Cultural Studies. To find more disciplinary databases, browse the full list of databases at UBC by subject.
Also check the Journals box on this page (below). There is a lot of overlap between searching in databases and searching in journals, so you may see some of the same articles appear in multiple places.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowA scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database providing indexing and abstracts for thousands of journals and other publications.
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science) This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary index. Can be used to determine where and how many times an article has been cited.
- MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association) This link opens in a new windowThe MLA International Bibliography is the core database for English language and literature.
- Sociology Collection This link opens in a new windowIncludes Sociological Abstracts, Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA), and full text from the journals included in Sociology Database.
- LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new windowThe premier resource to the world's literature regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender issues.
- Alternative Press Index (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowAlternative Press Index (API) is a bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from over 300 international alternative, radical, and left periodicals
- iPortal : Indigenous Studies Portal This link opens in a new windowThe Indigenous Studies Portal (iPortal) has over 25,000 records describing electronic resources: books, articles, theses, documents, photos, archival resources, and maps relevant to Indigenous studies and communities.
- PsycInfo (includes full text from PsycArticles) This link opens in a new windowCovers psychology and the psychological aspects of various other disciplines. Contains citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and technical reports, as well as citations to dissertations.
- GreenFILE This link opens in a new windowApproximately 300,000 articles on green issues, including green building, global warming, etc.
- Popular Music Studies DatabaseThis database stems from a major bibliographic collection originally set up by Philip Tagg (University of Montreal), one of the most influential scholars of popular music studies. Tagg’s purpose was to create a research tool, which could be used by anyone – researchers, students, and musicians – interested in popular music, a field that has steadily grown in recent decades, as demonstrated by the impressive number of studies published in books, conference proceedings, and journals.
- Canadian Business & Current Affairs (CBCA) This link opens in a new windowIncludes journals, magazines, and newspapers published in Canada in the fields of business, current events, education and general reference.
- FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals This link opens in a new windowIndexes more than 300,000 articles from 300 of the world's foremost academic and popular film journals, dating from 1972 onward.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowOver 300 key Oxford University Press dictionaries and other reference works. Multidisciplinary.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowWorld's largest academic search engine providing free searching to a full range of scholarly literature (ie. peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, pre-prints, abstracts, technical reports).
Journals
UBC Library subscribes to several Journals that cover the areas included in Cultural Studies. Below are some of the Journals that may be most useful for your research. For a more comprehensive list of Cultural Studies journals read this blog post of journal titles from the Cultural Studies Reading Group at McMaster University. A list of international journal titles may be found here. You can also browse journals at UBC Library by clicking on the appropriate subjects on this page.
Also check the Databases box on this page (above). There is a lot of overlap between searching in databases and searching in journals, so you may see some of the same articles appear in multiple places.
- Cultural StudiesAn international journal which explores the relation between cultural practices, everyday life, material, economic, political, geographical and historical contexts.
- Film CriticismFilm Criticism is a peer-reviewed, online publication bringing together scholarship in the field of cinema and media studies since 1975.
- International Journal of Cultural StudiesPromoting theoretical, empirical and historical research representative of international perspectives on cultural and media developments across the globe it explores the globalisation of the field and the study of the impact of globalisation on local cultural practices and media ecologies.
- Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial StudiesAn interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal operating at the crossroads of contemporary work in the humanities and social sciences, including but not limited to the research, theory and politics involved in colonialism, cultural theory, and indigeneity.
- The Journal of Popular CultureA peer-reviewed journal and the official publication of the Popular Culture Association.
- Journal of Popular Music StudiesFeatures work on popular music in its historical, cultural, aesthetic, and political registers. Also concerned with such issues as popular music’s intersections with other arts, its relationships with old and new media, and its status as a field of research and critical writing.
- Media, Culture, SocietyProvides a major peer-reviewed, international forum for research and discussion on the media, including the newer information and communication technologies, within their political, economic, cultural and historical contexts.
- Postcolonial TextA refereed open access journal that publishes articles, book reviews, interviews, poetry and fiction on postcolonial, transnational, and indigenous themes.
- Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and SocietyPublishes pathbreaking articles, review essays, comparative perspectives, and retrospectives of interdisciplinary interest addressing gender, race, culture, class, nation, and sexuality. Whether critical, theoretical, or empirical, articles published in Signs generate theories, concepts, analytical categories, and methodological innovations that enable new ways of thinking, new ways of seeing, and new ways of living.
- TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural StudiesTOPIA provides a venue for critical research in cultural studies in Canada and beyond. The journal publishes original research and theoretical essays on culture that are accessible to a wide readership in the humanities and social sciences, along with critical clusters, offerings, and book reviews.