Sarah Beth Gilbert is a first-year graduate student in the English program at Villanova University. Already in her first year, Gilbert published a paper in Apollonian, an online interdisciplinary journal (“Captain of the Innuendo Squad: Captain Jack Harkness’ Sexuality, Addressing Homosocial Bonding and Plot Use of Queer Characters in Doctor Who). She also has a forthcoming publication (“Bloke Utopia”: Bill Potts, Queer Identity, and Cyborg Narratives in Doctor Who) in Anthology on Fourth Wave Feminism in Science Fiction from McFarland.

For a scholar in science fiction, the process of research proves difficult, as science fiction does not cleanly fit into one discipline, field, or medium. A great resource database is instrumental in Gilbert’s research.

“The Film & Television Literature Index in EBSCOhost is my favorite database due to both the scope of content and the easy navigation. Similar to other databases, it allows you to search three filters at a time which is especially helpful for my area of study.

Most of the time, science fiction film, television, and literature sources are only categorized under “Science Fiction.” Being able to work in a database that already narrows my search to the film and televisions Lit Index does a layer of omission for me that I normally have to do myself.

After that, being able to search with three filters allows me to specify my medium, title, and sub-genre of science fiction to make sure that the results coming up are specific to the text I am working with.”

-Sarah Beth Gilbert