History
Junior Seminar

Reference works

Reference works such as encyclopedias can be invaluable as you try to develop your research topic. It can be tempting to just jump into very specific searches of the journal literature, you can actually save yourself a ton of time by reading a few good articles from a good specialty encyclopedia. These articles are often written by top scholars and can include rich bibliographies. The background articles help you develop the vocabulary you'll need when you start searching various indices. These articles can also help you identify what it is that really interests you about a topic. Some examples of useful reference books for this class:

Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese history: A manual. Revised edition. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2000.
Ref DS735 .W695 2000

Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing period (1644-1911). Arthur Hummel, et al, eds. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943-1944. 2 vol.
Ref DS734 U65

Dictionary of Ming biography, 1368-1644. Carrington Goodrich & FANG Chaoying, editors. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.
Ref DS753.5 A84 1976, v. 1 & v. 2

Cambridge History of China. Vol 7:1, The Ming Dynasty, 1386-1644, pt.1
Cambridge History of China. Vol 8:2, The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, pt.2
Cambridge History of China. Vol 9:1, The Chíng dynasty to 1800, pt. 1
Cambridge History of China. Vol 10, Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911, pt.1
Cambridge History of China. Vol 11, Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911, p. 2
Stacks DS735 .C3145

Professional associations and/or conference proceedings

Professional/scholarly associations often provide abstracts of the conferences they host. Scholars use these conferences as an opportunity to share their current research. Remember, the publication cycle for research can be extremely lengthy. Conference proceedings, or just the abstracts, can be a great place to find new scholars, see what is currently being discussed in the field, etc. For example, try the Association for Asian Studies webpage. You can sometimes get conference proceedings through WorldCat.

Catalogs

Use library catalogs to find books related to your topic ideas. During this exploration stage you might want to locate a couple promising call number ranges and do some browsing in the stacks. You can also browse "virtually" in the catalog.

Journals and article indexes/databases

Once your topic is more clearly defined, you'll begin searching the literature in earnest. That said, using article indexes at this stage of the game can be useful to help you get a sense of what has been written, what kind of language is used, which journals are covering your topic, etc.

Other useful tools

Here are some other tools you might find helpful for topic exploration or, later, as you're working on your research:

Articles from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia including "Chinese language," "Mandarin," "Pinyin," "Wade-Giles," and other related topics.

Chinese romanization converter
This site will help you convert Pinyin romanization of Chinese names, terms, & placenames into Wade-Giles romanization, and vice-versa.

Benjamin Elman. "Classical historiography for Chinese history."
Be sure to view Elman's 'Relevant electronic resources for Chinese studies' on the left-hand menu on this site.

Lisa Claypool (Reed, Art). "Chinese art & culture"
Includes subcategories 'China art now,' 'Imperial China,' and 'Museums and gardens,' with links to all sorts of important web sites.

China historical GIS

Created by: Rachel Bridgewater, History Liaison & Douglas Fix, History Professor