Welcome
Welcome to the library portal for American Studies. This portal provides quick links to some useful resources for your course. For more in-depth resources, you can consult the library's research guides for English, History, Education, Sociology, African American Studies, Indigenous Studies, LatinX Studies, Women's Studies, and Media Studies.
Your Librarian
Your Librarian is Chris Ruotolo
Each school/department at UVA is assigned a research librarian. 
You can connect with Chris at any point during the semester for help with your research and assignments in American Studies. Meeting with a librarian early in your research process can help you save time and obtain better results.
Chris can help with: learning how to use the Library's online catalog and databases, finding books and journal articles in print and electronic format, refining your research topic and your search strategies, and managing your citations. She can meet with you in-person or online via Zoom.
Ask a Librarian
Sign Up for Library events
Sign up for Library orientations, workshops, and events with our online calendar. UVA Library programming is offered in-person and online.
Search core databases for American Studies
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowLarge general database of articles from scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers on many topics. Also includes reference books (World Almanac, American Heritage Dictionary), biographies, speeches, images, and other primary source documents.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR provides access to millions of journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. The Archive Journal Collection is included.
- America: History & Life (1964-present) This link opens in a new windowCovers the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to present with records from 2,000 English-language journals published worldwide. Includes book reviews.
- MLA International Bibliography (Ebsco) This link opens in a new windowIndexes the broadest range of resources about literature in all languages, as well some resources on film and TV, in books, journals, and dissertations. To get the full text of an article, click on “Find article @ UVa Libraries”, or look up the journal title in VIRGO.
See also selected databases for African American Studies, Latinx Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian/Pacific American Studies, and Gender & Sexuality Studies.
Search newspaper archives
For current newspapers, LexisNexis and Factiva are your best bets. Consult the newspapers guide for more information.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowNew York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Pittsburgh Courier, NY Amsterdam News, Baltimore Afro-American, Washington Post, and The Guardian & The Observer.
- America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowCoverage: 1690-1991
Searchable full text collection of US newspapers. For additional titles see 19th Century U.S. Newspapers. - Chronicling America This link opens in a new windowChronicling America allows you to search and view millions of American historic newspapers, published 1836-1922 as well as discover more about newspapers published in the U.S., 1690-present.
API available, more information here: APIs for Scholarly Research
Other key resources for American Studies
American Quarterly is considered the premier journal in American Studies. Interdisciplinary in scope, it seeks "to make available the broad range of emergent approaches to American Studies."
The Encyclopedia of American Studies is an online resource maintained by the American Studies Association (ASA), covering the history, philosophy, arts, and cultures of the United States from pre-colonial days to the present.
Keywords for American Cultural Studies, Third Edition by ISBN: 9781479897964Publication Date: 2020-11-24Provides a list of essential terms and debates within American cultural studies and is a helpful point of entry to the field.
Keywords for African American Studies by ISBN: 9781479852833Publication Date: 2018-11-27Introduces key terms, interdisciplinary research, debates, and histories for African American Studies
Keywords for Asian American Studies by ISBN: 9781479874538Publication Date: 2015-05-08Introduces key terms, research frameworks, debates, and histories for Asian American Studies
Keywords for Latina/o Studies by ISBN: 9781479866045Publication Date: 2017-12-01Introduces key terms, concepts, debates, and histories for Latinx Studies.
