Library Guides: ART H/HIST 292N: Witches and Witchcraft, from the Middle Ages to the Present (Penn State Berks): Home

Cultural Analysis Paper Instructions

Papers should be 3-4 pages in length, double spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font. Please use MLA or Chicago Manual of Style for your citations and works cited list. Please include images with full captions.

The final paper for this class will combine research and cultural analysis. Students will select a contemporary representation of witches or witchcraft and analyze it in relationship to the issues and history covered in the course.

The contemporary work may be in any medium: visual art, literature, graphic novel, film or TV. Students will work in groups depending on their selection and present their work to the class as a group; however, each student will be responsible for their own individual paper.

Papers must demonstrate evidence of research including correct citations and work cited list. Students must use at least one historical or theoretical reading from the class and at least one new scholarly source. Students will be graded not only on the quality of their research and writing, but on the quality of their selection, its relevance to the course, their use and understanding of course content, and the quality of their sources.

Scholarly Journal Articles

A scholarly journal article is written with the purpose of sharing the research of a scholar.

Class Activity: Compare scholarly articles to social media.

Sample Scholarly Article

Searching in library databases using the scholarly filters is the best way to ensure you find these types of articles.

❓ Are the following sources scholarly?

Source 1: Witchcraft and the Uncanny Origins of Cinema

Source 2: On Witches and Terrorists

Source 3: Review of Seers, Witches, and Psychics on Screen

Source 4: The Wizard of Oz

💻Databases

LionSearch
An integrated search of books, e-books, research articles, newspaper articles, and other publications.
JSTOR
Covers all subjects areas. Recommended for everyone.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization that provides a trusted archive of important scholarly journals and a selection of scholarly books. Content in JSTOR spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. While indexing for JSTOR articles is covered in LionSearch, the full text of the articles is not searched in LionSearch. Search JSTOR itself to ensure detailed coverage of full texts.
Art Full Text & Art Index Retrospective
Paintings, drawings, comics, illustrations, and other types of visual art.
Indexes hundreds of international art magazines, including English-language periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins, as well as some published in other languages. Indexing is available for publications 1929+; abstracting for 1994+, and Full Text is often available for 1997+ but keyword searches do not explore the full texts – only the titles, subject headings, & etc.. Not covered by LionSearch.
Literature Online Core (LION Core) (legacy)
Novels, short stories, poetry, and other literature.
With over a third of a million full-text works of poetry, prose and drama in English, together with the definitive online criticism and reference library, Literature Online is the world's largest cross-searchable database of literature and criticism.
MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
Literature, folklore, film, TV.
The MLA International Bibliography contains more than 1.7 million records for books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics.
Film & Television Literature Index
Movies, TV.
Film & Television Literature Index is a comprehensive bibliographic database covering the entire spectrum of television and film writing, including theory, preservation and restoration; writing, production, cinematography; production and film and television reviews. It has been designed for use by a diverse audience including film scholars, college students, and general viewers. Publications include Film Journal International, Journal of British Cinema & Television, Film Criticism, Post Script, Variety, and more as well as technical publications such as SMPTE. Mirroring the international film & television industries and cultures, FTLI also includes publications such as Cahiers du Cinema, Filmihullu, SegnoCinema, and Kinetoscopio.

Communication & Mass Media Complete
Movies, TV.
CMMC incorporates CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association) and Mass Media Articles Index (formerly produced by Penn State) along with numerous other journals to create a research and reference resource of unprecedented scope and depth in the communication and mass media fields.
Women's Studies International
Witches from a gender perspective.
This resource provides access to over 232,000 records drawn from ten important Women's Studies databases. Among the databases included in Women's Resources International are Women's Studies Abstracts, one of the premiere Women's Studies indexes; four files from Women Studies Librarian at the University of Wisconsin; Popline Subset on Women; and Women's Health and Development: An Annotated Bibliography of Mostly English Language Journal Articles from the World Health Organization. Coverage: 1972 to date; citations and abstracts only. Updated semiannually.

America: History and Life
Witches in American history, including Salem.
Historical Abstracts
Witches in African, European, Asian, and Latin American history.

Books

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--If Berks has the book, proceed to the shelves and find the book using the call number.

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To Find Ebooks: Search for your topic and then click the "Online" filter on the left side to limit to ebooks at the Penn State Libraries.

⭐ Bonus:

Google Books is also a good place to find ebooks.

Penn State University Libraries

ART H/HIST 292N: Witches and Witchcraft, from the Middle Ages to the Present (Penn State Berks)

Reference Librarian

Cultural Analysis Paper Instructions

Scholarly Journal Articles

Books