This guide is designed for researchers to find articles, sources and get started with research in topics related to American Studies and the study of U.S. culture.
Core article databases for American Studies
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America: History and LifeAmerica: history and life provides historical coverage of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present with over 2,000 journals including all key English-language historical journals. Limited to 6 simultaneous users.
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Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science)AHCI covers arts, humanities, and area studies scholarship. Titles of foreign-language works are translated into English, and abstracts are given in English, thereby simplifying and standardizing searching across languages.
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MLA International BibliographyUse the MLA International Bibliography to find scholarly books and articles on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. This index has been compiled by the Modern Language Association of America since 1926.
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Sociological AbstractsThis core database for the field of sociology contains information on sociology and social policy worldwide. Sociological Abstracts includes citations from the 1952-present. It provides abstracting and indexing of articles and book reviews drawn from thousands of journal publications, plus books, book chapters, dissertations, conference papers, and working papers.
Recommended databases
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Art Full TextSearch for articles in fine, decorative and commercial art, as well as photography, film and architecture. Limited to 20 simultaneous users.
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Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North AmericaCovering all aspects of native North American culture, history, and life with 80,000+ citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents of the United States and Canada. This resource covers a wide range of topics including archaeology, multicultural relations, gaming, governance, legend, and literacy. Dates of coverage for included content range from the sixteenth century to the present.
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Chicano DatabaseSearch Mexican-American and Chicano studies and the broader Latino experience of Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Central American immigrants with topics such as art, education, health, language, literature, politics and more.
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Communication and Mass Media CompleteSearch for journal articles on topics such as communication, mass media, film, television, marketing, business communication, health communication, and more.
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Dissertations and Theses Global This link opens in a new windowCollection of dissertations and theses from around the world, offering millions of works from thousands of universities. Each year hundreds of thousands of works are added. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637.
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Film and Television Literature Index with Full-TextSearch articles on film and television studies' topics including theory, preservation, restoration, writing, production, cinematography, reviews from "Variety" back to 1914 and more.
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GenderWatchSearch articles from journals, etc. that focus on how gender impacts a broad spectrum of subject areas such as the women's movement, men's studies, the transgender community and the changes in gender roles.
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LGBTQ+ SourceLGBTQ+ Source contains indexing, abstracts, amd select full text for LGBTQ+ specific core periodicals. Books, newsletters, case studies, dissertations, and core primary sources are also represented. LGBTQ+ Source content is largely unique from other databases, and it includes indexing from its own LGBTQ+ focused thesaurus.
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Literature OnlineFind literary criticism and scholarly articles on literature included in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature and The MLA International Bibliography. It also includes an online full text library of literary reference resources and searchable full-text of over 300,000 works of English and American poetry, drama, and prose.
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MasterFile CompleteSearch magazines, with a small number of journals and newspapers, covering a broad range of disciplines and topics. Includes photos and multimedia.
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PAIS Index (Political Science and Public Policy)PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) searches journals and other sources on issues of political science and public policy. This includes government, politics, international relations, human rights and more.
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Race Relations AbstractsDiscover articles covering essential areas related to race relations, including ethnic studies, discrimination, immigration studies, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.
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SPORTDiscusThe world's most comprehensive bibliographic resources for all aspects of sport and fitness. Includes websites, conference papers, journal articles, unpublished papers and theses. It also includes Full-text access to over 350 journals. Limited to 8 simultaneous users.
Last Updated: Aug 13, 2025 9:10 AM
URL: https://libguides.umn.edu/AmericanStudies