Skip to Main Content

AMST 190/URBN 307: Race, Class, and Gender in American Cities: Home

Introduction

This course guide is intended to assist students in their assignments for the course "Race, Class, and Gender in American Cities," taught by Professor Kristin Hankins during Spring term 2023 at Yale University. The selection of resources included in this guide is not intended to be comprehensive.

Library Contacts

Students in AMST 190/URBN 307 should feel free to contact any of the following librarians as a starting point for research assistance with their projects for this course.

  • Joshua Cochran: Curator, American History and Diplomacy, Beinecke Library - joshua.cochran@yale.edu
  • Tess Colwell: Arts Librarian for Research Services - tess.colwell@yale.edu
  • James Kessenides: Kaplanoff Librarian for American History, Sterling Memorial Library - james.kessenides@yale.edu
  • Bill Landis: Education Program Director, Beinecke Library - bill.landis@yale.edu 

Yale Library Search Tools

The main search tools for finding books, articles, databases, archival collections, and more at Yale (and beyond) can all be found on the "Find, Request, and Use" page of the library's website. Here are a few quick refreshers, but be sure to visit the page for a full overview:

Background Sources

Background or "reference" sources are a great place to start your research. Reference works include bibliographies, scholarly encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, and other sources that provide overviews of topics and suggestions for further reading.

A Companion to the City

 

The New Blackwell Companion to the City


Oxford Bibliographies
An extensive collection of annotated bibliographies often pointing to both primary and secondary sources, for example an article on "Urbanization" by Joe William Trotter..


Routledge Companion to Photography and Visual Culture (print)


Routledge Companion to Urban Media and Communication


Routledge Companion to Media and the City


Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History
A scholarly encyclopedia that includes a set of articles in Urban History -- just one example being "The Central Business District in American Cities."

 

Oxford Handbooks Online
Lengthy chapters in the Oxford Handbooks usually provide helpful overviews of scholarly topics and historical literature, along with suggestions for further reading. A number of the handbooks may be helpful depending on your research topic.

Secondary Sources/Subject Databases

In addition to the online library catalog (Books+ and Orbis), reference sources, and footnotes in sources you've already found, subject-specific databases are another extremely helpful resource for finding secondary literature, including the latest scholarly journal articles in the field, and some key ones are:

Guides to Historical Research & Writing