Seminar Topical Research Guides

Choosing a Paper Topic Research Guide
This research guide from the Ross-Blakley Law Library is designed for students who are writing a substantive legal research paper and are looking for guidance on how to begin. The guide details sources for help in selecting a paper topic and offers insight in how to check whether your paper will add new information to the field of law.

Conducting a Preemption Check Research Guide
This research guide details the recommended steps for conducting a preemption check, as well as provides information on and links to a variety of resources for conducting a thorough check.

Alt-Press Watch
Alt-Press Watch is a full-text database of articles from independent magazines, newspapers, and journals.  The database offers an alternative to mainstream media perspectives on local, national, and international issues. Coverage is from 1970 to the present.

America: History and Life
This is a database of journal articles and books dealing with the history of the United States and Canada.

ATLA Religion Database
The American Theological Association Database indexes journal articles, books reviews, and essay collections on topics such as world religions, religious perspectives on social issues, and church history.  Coverage is from 1949 to the present.

Google Scholar
Google Scholar allows searching of multidisciplinary scholarly literature including articles, papers, these, books, abstracts, and technical reports from a wide variety of resources such as journals, professional societies, preprint repositories, and the web.

JSTOR
JSTOR is a full-text archive of over 1,000 academic journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context
This database offers access to articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers on social issues, as well as statistics, biographies, court cases, profiles of government agencies and groups, maps, and videos.  Coverage is from 1980 to the present.

PsycINFO
PsycINFO indexes journal articles and books in psychology and related disciplines. Coverage is from 1887 to the present.

Sociological Abstracts
This database provides access to articles, papers, and books on sociology, social science, and policy science.

Below is a short list of treatises in the ASU Libraries collection related to cults.  You can search for other books in the ASU Library catalog by using subject headings such as: Cults-United States and Sects-United States.

Controversial New Religions (James R. Lewis & Jesper Aa. Petersen, eds., 2014)
Tracing the histories and the drama surrounding new religious movements, from the Branch Davidians and Kabbalah of the West to the Asian-inspired Transcendental Meditation sect to contemporary Paganism and Satanism. 

Cults: A Reference Guide (James R. Lewis, 2014)
This title, available as an e-book, examines the history and current status of cults across the United States, Europe, and East Asia.

Encyclopedia of Superstitions (Edwin Radford & Ramona A. Radford, 2018)
This reference charts the origins and development of superstitions, remedies, charms, spells, and other beliefs tied to major and minor religious and cult beliefs.

Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions (J. Gordon Melton, 2017)
Detailing the origins and histories of American religions with a heavy emphasis on Christian denominations, and also exploring Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, New Age groups, and Magick such as witchcraft and Neo-Paganism. 

New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements: Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America (Hugh B. Urban,  2015)
Exploring religions including ancient Native American religions, along with faiths such as Rastafari, Hare Krishna, Peoples Temple, and the Raelians, emphasizing the political, ethical, and legal debates surrounding the diversity of American religious life.

Bloomberg Law News (Bloomberg password required)
Focusing on developments of law concerning religion, including coverage of free exercise and religious discrimination.

New York Times Religious Cults News
This New York Times “topics” webpage offers news about religious cults, including commentary and archival articles.

Westlaw News (Westlaw password required)
Studies, legal developments, and current events involving religions, from the mainstream to the alternative.