Chicana / Chicano Studies

Our librarians have developed this research guide to introduce students at CSUDH to some of the resources, tools, and methods which are useful for researching in the discipline of Chicana/o Studies.  If you are new to this subject, check out the Background Research page to learn more about how to get started conducting research in this field. Or explore the links to the left to learn more about finding and using:

Background information

Books

Articles

Primary sources

Citation

You will encounter the terms Chicana/Chicano/Chicanx, Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine, Hispanic or Hispanic American, or Mexican American in different websites, online catalogs and databases. Databases also vary in how accented letters appear in search results.

Regardless of which terms you prefer, it may be necessary for you to try all of them to find the resources you need. Often times, the best way to find what terms will work best is to try all the options and see what you find!

U.S. government websites have traditionally used the term "Hispanic American" in their reporting, but recently, the Census Bureau allowed people to self select the terms used to identity their ethnicity in the 2000 Census. Most government agencies have begun to use some of these other terms.

Chicana/o Studies is an interdisciplinary field which means that while researchers in Chicana/o Studies bring their own disciplinary lens to their research, they also draw upon the work of researchers in many different areas. Likewise, any topic from other disciplines can be examined through the lens of ethnic studies. Like all academic work, research in Chicana/o Studies and related disciplines can both problematize and reflect the racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and other forms of oppression present in our world and in the structures of academia. In this guide I try to present resources and tools which reflect the diversity of research in this field. However, if you don't see what you need here please reach out to me for assistance- my contact info is in the box just above this!