BU Library Guides
Encyclopedias, Dictionaries & Handbooks
- Oxford Reference This link opens in a new windowPublished by Oxford University Press, it is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database containing dictionaries, language reference and subject reference works.
- Oxford Handbooks Online: Literature This link opens in a new windowOxford Handbooks Online: Literature publishes original, peer reviewed, research reviews covering the key issues and exploring major debates in literature.
- Cambridge Companions Complete Collection This link opens in a new windowThe Cambridge Companions present collections of essays written by leading experts in the field on themes, subjects, and key figures in three broad areas: Literature and Classics; Philosophy, Religion, and Culture; and Music.
- Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Opposing Viewpoints covers opposing sides of the most current social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. Opposing Viewpoints helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.
- Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology Online This link opens in a new window
This encyclopedia offers concise, expert definitions and explanations of the key concepts in sociology, written by leading scholars in the field, including several faculty from Boston University. Content dating to 2015 is included. Entries range from short definitions of key terms to extended explorations of major topics in both classical sociology and contemporary developments in the field.
- Encyclopedia of Gender and SocietyIncluding contributions by experts in the field, the Encyclopedia of Gender and Society covers the major theories, research, people, and issues in contemporary gender studies.
Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film by Location: Mugar Reference X PN1993.45 .G65 2007 and OnlinePublication Date: 2006This reference provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to film and film studies, covering such aspects as production, national traditions, studios, genres, critical theory and film history.
The Cambridge Companion to Queer Studies by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2020This Companion provides a guide to queer inquiry in literary and cultural studies. The essays represent new and emerging areas, including transgender studies, indigenous studies, disability studies, queer of color critique, performance studies, and studies of digital culture.
Queer Cinema in America : An Encyclopedia of LGBTQ Films, Characters, and Stories by Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2019Explore queer cinema over time with this comprehensive encyclopedia, helping readers understand films, directors, actors, themes, and other topics related to LGBTQ cinema history.
The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema by Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2021The term "queer cinema" is often used to name at least three cultural events: 1) an emergent visual culture that boldly identifies as queer; 2) a body of narrative, documentary, and experimental work previously collated under the rubric of homosexual or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) cinema; 3) a means of critically reading and evaluating films and other visual media through the lens of sexuality. As the first of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema treats these three currents as art and critical practice, bringing the canon of queer cinema together with a new generation of makers and scholars.
New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader by Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2004New Queer Cinema. Chapters address the pivotal directors (e.g. Todd Haynes and Gregg Araki) and the salient films (e.g. Paris is Burning and Boys Don't Cry) but also non-mainstream and non-Anglo-American work (e.g. experimental film and third cinema). With a critical eye to its uneasy relationship to the mainstream, the volume explores the aesthetic, socio-cultural, political and, necessarily, commercial investments of New Queer Cinema.
