The University’s Special Collections are available to all students in the University. The collections include rare books, manuscripts, records, letters, photographs, maps and drawings. Use the search box below to find specific items on the Enterprise catalogue.
The Special Collections Service is based on the London Road campus, in the same building as the Museum of English Rural Life. Items from the Special Collections cannot be borrowed, but they can be consulted in the reading room. You’re advised to plan ahead and contact Special Collections prior to your visit, so that we can have the material ready for you for when you arrive.
There are a few items within the archive and rare book collections that relate to gender studies.
The following collections may be relevant to your research and provide areas for potential study of gender roles.
Women's Land Army Collections
There are several collections relating to The Women’s Land Army (WLA), which was created in 1917 to help farmers cope with the shortage of male labour as a result of the First World War. It was brought back into action for the Second World War, at first as voluntary service and then as a form of conscription.
The Archive of British Publishing and Printing
This collection contains records of printing and publishing firms, including author correspondence, manufacturing and production information, and the marketing and review of the finished book. Within the archive there may be records of books published on the study of gender, women, sexuality, masculinity and manliness, and feminism or books written by authors that are key to studies of literature in these fields.
Authors in the collection that may be of interest are:
See the following links for more information about each of the publishers' collections:
All of the archives listed above are imprints of Random House, and access to these archives is granted by Penguin Random House - more information on the following page:
Author's papers
Special Collections also has a large collection of Authors' papers - literary manuscripts of 19th & 20th century novelists, poets and playwrights. Within the collection there may be papers of authors who published on the study of gender, women, sexuality, masculinity and manliness, and feminism.
Authors that may be of interest are:
Political correspondence
University of Reading Academics
Within Special Collections there are papers of University of Reading academics who may be of interest such as:
Other collections
If you would like to make use of the University's Special Collections for your dissertation research, a good place to start would be the Subject Explorer guides. This guide has been created to help you make use of the University of Reading Special Collections in your dissertation.
CentAUR (Central Archive at the University of Reading) is the University of Reading's institutional repository for research publications and equivalent research outputs.
The University of Reading's institutional repository for research publications has a range of gender-related material. These are just a few examples. For more, search CentAUR:
Ho, J. K. Y., O'Rouke, C., Laville, A., Chellingsworth, M. and Callaghan, P. (2023) Clinician experiences on training and awareness of sexual orientation in NHS Talking Therapies Services for Anxiety and Depression. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 16. ISSN 1754-470X
Butt, A., Dillon, T., Hill, R., Kabo, R., Murphy, S., Myer, S., Rossi, E. and Stone, K. (2023) Navigating beyond gender: the city in feminist science fiction. In: Kelly, M. G. and Paz, M. (eds.) Utopia, Equity and Ideology in Urban Texts: Fair and Unfair Cities. Literary urban studies. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783031258541
Renshaw, D. (2023) ‘And now you love me, and there is no way out of it’: marital engagement, misogyny and violence in the Victorian fin-de-siècle gothic short story. Women's History Review, 32 (1). pp. 82-100. ISSN 1747-583X
Masoud, S. R. (2023) Breastfeeding, motherhood and employment: the experience of breastfeeding mothers returning to work in Qatar. PhD thesis, University of Reading
Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, F. and Thomlinson, N. (2022) Vernacular discourses of gender equality in the post-war British working class. Past and Present, 254 (1). pp. 277-313. ISSN 1477-464X
Chamarette, J. 2022) ‘A long meandering slide’: feminist critique, genderqueerness, sexual agency and Crip subjectivity in Stephen Dwoskin’s late works. MIRAJ: Moving Image Review & Art Journal, 11 (1). pp. 10-33. ISSN 2045-6298
Dempsey, K. (2021) Planting new ideas: a feminist gaze on Medieval castles. Chateau Gaillard: Études de castellologie médiévale, 29. pp. 85-98. ISSN 2491-844x
Zanghellini, A. (2020) Philosophical problems with the gender critical feminist argument against trans inclusion. Sage Open, 10 (2). ISSN 2158-2440
Kambouri-Danos, M. and Evans, A. (2019) Perceptions of gender roles: a case study. Early Years Educator (EYE), 20 (11). pp. 38-44. ISSN 1465-931X
Woods, F. (2019) Too close for comfort: direct address and the affective pull of the confessional comic woman in Chewing Gum and Fleabag. Communication, Culture and Critique, 12 (2). pp. 194-212. ISSN 1753-9129
Reading University theses and dissertations
The Library receives a copy of all theses accepted for the degrees of PhD and MPhil by the University. All theses held by the Library can be found on the Enterprise catalogue. Recently submitted theses might also be available to download from the University's Institutional Repository, CentAUR.
Masters theses can usually be consulted in the relevant school or department.
Finding theses from other institutions
There are a number of specialist sources for finding theses produced at other institutions around the world. Many more are becoming available online making it much easier to get the full-text. For more information see our guide to finding theses.
See our guide to finding theses for more information:
Our Inter-Library Loans service can get articles, books and other publications not held at Reading from other libraries (usually from the British Library).
For more information see our webpages:
As a member of the University of Reading you can usually use other academic libraries. However, if you want to consult another Library's collections please contact the Library concerned before making a special journey.
You can identify some UK research and University libraries by looking at the list of libraries contributing to the Library Hub Discover service:
We are members of two SCONUL schemes which enable you to access many other UK HE libraries. In some cases you may be able to borrow.
For more information see our guide to using other libraries: