New Collections Provide Greater Insights into Voices That Have Shaped Societal and Cultural Movements on Sexuality and Gender, Disabilities, Environmental History and Refugees
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., March 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Gale, part of Cengage Group, is continuing its support of academic initiatives in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) with the release of four new archives on the Gale Primary Sources (GPS) platform. These archives unlock perspectives on interdisciplinary subjects, including the histories of LGBTQ+ communities in North America, the treatment of disabilities in society, refugeeism and relief work during the Cold War period and the environmental impact of colonial policies in Africa and Asia – all topics that represent some of the fastest-growing areas of research and teaching. Making accessible the often unheard voices of those who lived it, these unique collections enable researchers and students to break past barriers, gain new insights and make key connections between past events and their influence on the world we live in today.
“In a time when the internet and social media are inundated with misleading information, access to primary sources have never been more important,” said Seth Cayley, vice president of global academic product at Gale. “By using primary source accounts of those who witnessed history as it happened, researchers can draw through-lines to current affairs and trace the development of ideas, thoughts or movements, which explain how we got to where we are today. These new archives drive exploration of different perspectives by connecting researchers and students to primary sources that create a culture of discovery and understanding.”
New GPS Frontlist archives include:
- Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Community and Identity in North America: The sixth installment of Gale’s award-winning Archives of Sexuality and Gender series is a twentieth-century compendium that offers perspectives on society, sexual identity, community building and gender issues. This archive focuses on the breadth of North America, providing a social history that casts a spotlight on diversity, equity and inclusion with materials that cover activism and social justice issues, highlight disabilities in Queer society, offer information around alternative sexualities, document interactions between sexuality and religion and represent diverse ethnic communities across North America.
- History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century: The first collection of Gale’s new History of Disabilities series demonstrates how society has presented and treated individuals with disabilities historically. Materials in this collection include records of treatments, methods of education, forms of remediation, and more. Reports and proceedings of organizations and institutions that sought to help or heal those with disabilities are included, as well as records of policies and programs. Through this collection, researchers will grasp the many forms of institutional discrimination, political exclusion and social control under which disabled individuals struggled over time. Materials chronicle how individuals were classified and treated and how some overcame physical or mental challenges to defy perceptions of being disabled.
- Environmental History: Colonial Policy and Global Development, 1896–1993: The second installment of Gale’s new Environmental History series reproduces key documentation from the various offices of British government chronicling the environmental impact of colonial policies on colonized peoples. This digital archive draws on the vast holdings of the National Archives of the United Kingdom in its focus on such themes as “envirocolonialism,” land use and exploitation, exploration, agriculture, the technological revolution, industrial change and urbanization, conservation, pollution, climate, development programs and sustainability, natural resources and industries such as forestry and mining.
- Refugees, Relief, and Resettlement: The Early Cold War and Decolonization: This second installment in the Refugees, Relief, and Resettlement series opens a window onto the history of refugees and forced migration, expanding the possibilities of research for scholars and students who are studying the history of—and who may possibly come to work with—refugee populations. Topical coverage includes the causes of refugee crises following World War II, from the onset of the Cold War to the decolonization of, and rise of independence movements within, the nations of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
These new archives are available on the Gale Primary Sources platform, enabling cross-archival searching to help users make new connections across topics. For those seeking to explore even deeper insights, the archives are also available for text-mining analyses within Gale Digital Scholar Lab. This allows researchers to apply natural language processing tools across thousands of documents from Gale Primary Sources and perform a variety of textual analyses. Now researchers can analyze and explore historical text more interactively, generating new research insights and content sets not previously possible.
Gale Primary Sources is a digital research platform that brings the thoughts, words and actions of past centuries into the present for a comprehensive research experience. With authoritative content and powerful search technologies, Gale Primary Sources helps students and researchers examine literary, political and social culture of the last 500 years and develop a more meaningful understanding of how history continues to impact the world today. Its innovative technology improves discovery, analysis and workflow while setting the bar for digital primary source analysis and data visualization with tools like cross-archival searching and Topic Finder, which visually organizes search results to help users make new connections across topics.
For more information or to request a trial, visit the Gale Primary Sources web page.
About Cengage Group and Gale
Cengage Group, an education technology company serving millions of learners in 165 countries, advances the way students learn through quality, digital experiences. The company currently serves the K-12, higher education, professional, library, English language teaching and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Group, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 65 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights – where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit www.gale.com.
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