Exercise 1: Map the research territory in your field to position your research interests in the larger context of academic discourse in your field. Note theoretical approaches and themes. Think about ways of participating in the ongoing academic exchanges.
Resources for Exercise 1:
For Recent Monographs/Books
Google Scholar via USC Libraries page
Databases
Proquest Theses and Dissertations. Index goes back to 1861. Text of theses available in full since the mid-1990s.
MLA International Bibliography New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1921- . Index to scholarly articles in literature, linguistics and folklore from journals, books, and collections.
Journals (individual titles):
PMLA: Publications of Modern Language Association (USC institutional subscription)
Russian Review (last 12 months under the publisher's embargo)
Slavic and East European Journal
Canadian-American Slavic Studies
Exercise 2: Finding scholarly source related to your current research interest.
Example for Exercise 2
Exercise 2 11/4/2025
Specialized Resources for Exercise 2
MLA International Bibliography New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1921- . Index to scholarly articles in literature, linguistics and folklore from journals, books, and collections.
Literature Resource Center. Very good, often scholarly, biographical essays on major writers, also from Eastern Europe. Includes several hundred volumes of the Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Universal Database of Russian Social Sciences and Humanities Journals (East View) includes, among other titles, Vetsnik Evropy, an important 19th century Russian literary and cultural periodical, as well as full text of current academic journals published in Russia.
East Europe, Central Europe Database full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in East European and Central European countries. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.