The Women and War Research Guide is a starting point for students and researchers interested in women, war, and human rights. Through the lens of war and conflicts, this guide provides a select bibliography on themes such as sexual violence and international law, refugees, trauma and healing, and women as combatants. In addition to books and articles about each of these areas, the guide includes links to human rights’ organizations active in working with women who live or have lived in combat zones, and recommended databases when researching women and war.
The Women and War Research Guide grew out of the UCI Libraries’ exhibit Korean Comfort Women and the U.S. Discoveries, curated by Dr. Ying Zhang, and Dr. Zhang’s companion bibliography, Comfort Women: A Bibliography. The success of the Korean Comfort Women exhibit illustrated the growing interest across UCI in the intersections between women, war, and human rights. Three librarians collaborated to create the Women and War Research Guide:
- Dr. Ying Zhang, the Research Librarian for Asian Studies;
- Cynthia Johnson, head of reference and the Grunigen Medical Library, who served as the interim Research Librarian for Gender and Sexuality Studies prior to the arrival of Melissa Beuoy;
- Melissa Beuoy, the new Research Librarian for Interdisciplinary Studies, works with a number of departments, including Gender and Sexuality Studies. Melissa has a graduate degree in International Development with a focus on education and spent a number of years working on USAID-funded education projects in Rwanda and Afghanistan. As a result, she is familiar with the missions and work of a number of INGOs.
The three librarians knew the topic of women, war, and human rights was vast and the Research Guide needed to be selective rather than all-inclusive. While including information about how human rights organizations work with women who have been impacted by war and combat was a priority, this was only one aspect out of many to explore. The team agreed to research three to four additional areas about women and war, knowing that human rights organizations work with women impacted by war in many different ways.
Before diving into the research, the team set two parameters: focus on wars and conflicts that occurred after World War II and concentrate on research published after 1980. The team then divided the research, looking for prominent themes in the literature. Zhang investigated books published on the topic of women and war using the UCI Libraries’ discovery system, Library Search. Johnson examined the journal literature using important subject-specific databases such as Women’s Studies International. According to Johnson, “Women’s Studies International is a great database for this topic because it covers all areas of women’s studies research. Another really interesting database I used for the initial dive into the research was PsycINFO, which focuses on literature in the behavioral and social sciences.”
Looking at the themes covered by scholarly books and articles, the team agreed to focus on the topics of sexual violence and international law, refugees, trauma and healing and women as combatants. While Zhang and Johnson reviewed published research, Beuoy started seeking out United Nations’ organizations that support women and fund grassroots work all over the world. Beuoy noted that, “Many large development organizations collect data, conduct research, and issue reports on successful interventions. Their websites or reports also list the local, grassroots organizations they work with, which is a useful pathfinder to learn about how specific communities have responded to gender-based violence.” Beuoy also consulted a list of scholars provided by Professor Chungmoo Choi, who had organized a campus event on War, Women's Human Rights and Comfort Women, to identify additional pertinent published scholarship to add to the Research Guide.
After building the initial bibliographies and list of organizations active in the area of women and war, the team divided up the topics and put together the Research Guide. The Women and War Research Guide was completed to coincide with Human Rights Day on Friday, December 10, 2020.
For more information, please contact Cynthia Johnson, Head of Reference and the Grunigen Medical Library, at cynthiaj@uci.edu.