University of Pittsburgh Library System

This display features Indigenous authors and filmmakers from the collections of the University Library System. It is intended to highlight contemporary works across a variety of topics. Click here to view the location of this collection.

Theatrical and musical performance are among the few mediums in which transgender, gender-nonconforming, and crossdressing individuals find acceptance, community, and vocational roles in an otherwise hostile society. This collection provides a modest introduction to the rich diversity and historical significance of these communities.

Gender-nonconforming individuals have often held roles performing religious music and rituals. One of the earliest such historical attestations depicts gender-nonconforming priestesses to the goddess Inanna in ancient Mesopotamia, as described in Inanna: Lady of Largest Heart.

Crossdressing in performance has regularly been used as a response to gender restricting laws in theatre. For example, in Classical Greece, Elizabethan England, and Edo Japan, women were banned from performing on stage, compelling male actors to play female roles. Conversely, European opera often featured women performing ‘trouser roles’ – portrayals of youthful men – after the decline in popularity and eventual banning of castrati.

In more recent years, crossdressing, transgender, and gender-nonconforming performers have gained wider acceptance in the United States, reflected in the popularity of live and televised drag shows, whose contemporary origins lie in the Harlem drag balls vividly depicted in the groundbreaking documentary Paris is Burning.

The University of Pittsburgh Library System is unique in that it holds two archival collections directly related to this subject: the Mildred Miller Posvar Papers, which document the life of the longtime mezzo-soprano at the Metropolitan Opera, who was iconic for her trouser roles; and Kōgyo: The Art of Noh, which features woodblock prints depicting male Noh actors portraying male and female characters.

This collection also includes literature on contemporary transgender, gender-nonconforming, and crossdressing performers in communities across the globe, and the use of makeup, costuming, mannerisms, and singing techniques to depict gender on stage.

The Women in International Education Collection is dedicated to exploring the roles, contributions, and experiences of women within global education systems and international academic environments. This spotlight collection spans multiple disciplines, including education, sociology, gender studies, international relations, and global development, providing a multifaceted view of the intersection between gender and education across diverse cultural, geopolitical, and historical contexts. Key areas of focus within the collection include:

1. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives: Materials examine the historical development of women’s involvement in education worldwide, tracing key milestones such as women’s access to higher education, the rise of female educators, and the evolution of policies promoting gender equity in educational systems.
2. Global Educational Policies and Gender Equality: The collection includes resources on international frameworks, such as UNESCO’s initiatives on gender parity in education, as well as regional and national policies that aim to empower women through educational access and leadership opportunities.
3. Women as Educators and Leaders: The collection features works on the role of women as teachers, administrators, and scholars in international contexts. It also highlights the experiences of women in leadership positions in global education organizations, examining the barriers they face and the strategies they employ to advocate for change.
4. Gender and Educational Access: A significant portion of the collection focuses on gender-based disparities in educational access, particularly in developing countries, and the ways in which women’s education is impacted by social, economic, political, and cultural factors.
5. Intersectionality and Education: Recognizing the complexity of women’s identities, the collection explores intersectionality in global education, addressing how race, class, ethnicity, religion, and other factors intersect with gender to influence educational experiences and outcomes for women.
6. Scholarship and Feminist Theories in Education: Scholarly works on feminist pedagogies, critical gender theory, and postcolonial critiques of education are integral to the collection, providing theoretical frameworks for understanding women’s roles in shaping and being shaped by educational systems around the world.

Through its diverse range of materials, the collection fosters a deeper understanding of how women contribute to and are impacted by the global educational landscape, while supporting the ongoing work of promoting gender equity in education worldwide. Click here to view the location of this collection.

The horror genre is one of most enduring forms of storytelling both in literature and film. It thrives on its ability to entertain, thrill, repulse, and terrify readers and viewers. It also offers a framework for understanding and exploring our fears, both personal and societal. Horror explores these fears through a broad spectrum of approaches that includes both realism and the supernatural: from quiet psychological thrillers to rampaging monsters; from haunted houses to body horror; from historical periods to speculative futures; and from extreme gore to goofy comedy. It is a rich genre, diverse in both its themes and content as well as its creators. This spotlight collection features a variety of titles across the genre to serve as both an entry point for newcomers and somewhere to find something new for dedicated fans. It features classic works in film and literature; winners of the major horror literary awards, the Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Awards; and works from authors whose papers can be found in the horror studies collection in Archives & Special Collections. Click here to view the location of this collection.

This year’s spotlight collection explores the themes of race, gender, and identity, highlighting the diverse experiences and narratives within the Asian American community. By fostering understanding and solidarity among marginalized voices, the collection draws from the Pitt University of Pittsburgh Library System’s extensive Asian American literature collections, and features around thirty 30 carefully selected titles.

This showcase exemplifies contemporary Asian American authors who advocate for their communities from the National Medal awardee Maxine Hong Kingston, whose seminal works like The Woman Warrior and China Men examine the complexities of identity and gender within the Asian American experience, to Pulitzer Prize finalist Cathy Park Hong, whose powerful essays in Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning delve into the emotional and societal struggles faced by Asian American women, this showcase exemplifies contemporary Asian American authors who advocate for their communities. Kingston’s narrative style weaves together personal and collective histories, while Hong’s incisive critique addresses the intersections of race, gender, and culture.

For those interested in Asian American racial identity and social realities, the 2020 book Envisioning Religion, Race, and Asian Americans explores the complex intersections of religion and racial identity among Asian American communities, highlighting how these dynamics shape cultural experiences. Through this diverse array of perspectives, the collection emphasizes the importance of intersectionality in addressing the unique challenges faced by Asian Americans and advocates for a more inclusive dialogue on identity and social justice.

We are collaborating with the Alliance of Queer and Underrepresented Asians in Recognition of Intersectionality to Uphold Solidarity (AQUARIUS) and the Asian Students Alliance (ASA) to host events that promote awareness for API Month. Click here to view the location of this collection.

In the preface to their historical and critical account of transness in cinema, Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema, Willow Maclay and Caden Gardner write:

“I don’t think movies are the be-all, end-all for social change or anything of the sort, but there’s certainly something symptomatic in the American psyche where for the most part the only times we’ve been on screen are to be murdered, turned into a joke, or a tragedy of failed transition. The mainstream isn’t interested in our livelihood or our goals. It’s a lost highway of corpses, fools and monsters.”

The authors go on to describe the presence of trans subjects in the history of cinema, the role trans artists and advocates have played in reclaiming and reconstituting that history, and what future there may be for trans filmmakers, performers, artists, and authors.

This spotlight collection uses their account as a point of departure for exploring the presence of trans artists in this medium and others. Because it encapsulates only what is in one library’s collection, and trans art and artists remain underrepresented in this collection and many others, we encourage users to seek work beyond the scope of this collection—and let us know what voices and works YOU think should be represented in this collection in the future!

Black History Month: African Americans, and Labor, focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational, and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people. Click here to view the location of this collection.

This Spotlight Collection honors two pioneering queens of mystery—Agatha Christie and Mary Roberts Rinehart—whose extraordinary lives rivaled the intrigue of their fiction. 2026 is the 150th anniversary of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s birth and the 50th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s death. Both women revolutionized detective literature and influenced generations of suspense writers. Christie created the legendary Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, while Rinehart pioneered the "Had I But Known" narrative style which compares the character’s foolish actions to what they might have done had they known all the facts.

Beyond their literary achievements, these remarkable authors led adventurous lives that defied the constraints of their era.  Christie accompanied her archaeologist husband on digs across the Middle East.  Rinehart, equally intrepid, worked as a war correspondent during World War I, becoming one of the first journalists to reach the Belgian front lines and interviewing Queen Mary of England as well as other notable figures.

Both women witnessed the tumult of two world wars, experiences that profoundly shaped their writing. Rinehart served as a nurse and reported from European battlefields, while Christie worked in hospital dispensaries, gaining the pharmaceutical knowledge that made her poison plots devastatingly authentic. Their combined works showcase not only masterful plotting and unforgettable characters but also the indomitable spirit of two women who lived as boldly as they wrote.

This collection features a mix of nonfiction and fiction books, films, and online resources that highlight the experiences of diverse disability communities. Topics include blindness, deafness, neurodiversity, and mobility disabilities.

Showcasing collections like this helps increase disability representation and awareness. Representation matters, as it provides characters and narratives that members of the disability community can connect with and helps affirm that they are not alone in their experiences. Materials included in this collection also offer opportunities to share these perspectives with a broader audience. By highlighting these stories, the collection aims to foster greater awareness, understanding, and acceptance among the able-bodied community and beyond.

The University Library System has strong collections pertaining to jazz. Although many materials can be found in the Theodore M. Finney Music Library (B-30 Music Building), materials can also be found in Hillman Library, Thomas Boulevard, and other locations. This exhibit spotlights the range of books, recordings, and archival materials available to library patrons.

The University Library System has over 40,000 records, CDs, and other physical recording formats, many of which are unavailable to stream online. You can find them in PittCat and listen to them at home or in Finney Music Library. Click here to view the location of this collection.

A much-beloved writer, the works of Jane Austen are funny, romantic, and sharply satirical. Whether you’ve been an Austen fan for decades, or the latest Pride and Prejudice adaptation has recently caught your eye, we welcome you to peruse this Spotlight Collection.

This collection contains all of Austen’s major novels (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion), as well as her unfinished works and early unpublished writings. You will also find an array of filmed adaptations, from straightforward renditions of her novels to modernized interpretations.

Looking to delve deeper into Austen scholarship? This collection showcases numerous critical responses to Austen’s work, examining her novels from a variety of engaging scholarly lenses.

In our busy, oversaturated lives, it’s common to rapidly consume one piece of media after another. By examining the oeuvre and critical reception of a sole author, this collection encourages readers to slow down and experience Austen’s works thoughtfully and comprehensively, fostering a deeper understanding of her life, her work, and the society that she was so fond of satirizing.

The very best adaptation/expansion, reimagining mines an already established and valued narrative for deeper meaning and fresh insight. Humans are born storytellers. Whether from oral tradition, written word, or created through other media, a tale impacts culture at a specific time and with a particular audience. Some tales, though, persist over time and are shared again and again. In some cases, the narrative barely alters. But sometimes, a retelling/retooling bursts through, imbued with transformative changes that engage, delight, and challenge. This Spotlight offers the opportunity to enjoy a great story. As you read or listen, perhaps consider why some stories are revisited. What has changed? Why? Who has made the change?

These materials highlight creators referencing known works in surprising ways, captivating audiences anew, possibly employing modern technologies or alternative formats. There are retellings once directed at adult audiences now targeted at youth, and younger fare fashioned for mature audiences. Some reimaginings flip the narrative in terms of elements such as gender, class, locale, age, genre, or time period. You’ll find a heady mix of scary, delightful, disturbing, and nostalgic within this assortment. We invite you to explore these stories—traditional and newly-wrought—that continue to engage and shape popular culture. Click here to view the location of this collection.

Red horses frolicking in a yellow field, a great white shark in a tank of formaldehyde, white peacocks peacefully preening, a rhinoceros named Clara, these are a few of the participants in our animal parade.

This selection from the Frick Fine Arts Library Collection reflects the evolving role of animals in the human imagination and the visual arts. Poetic, realistic, dreamlike or ominous, these powerful images invite us to contemplate the everlasting fascination of artists for the animal kingdom. Comprised of art books and graphic novels, it addresses themes as varied as anthropomorphism, rituals, symbolism, ecological crisis, and posthumanism. It is also a rich interdisciplinary source of inspiration for students, researchers, art lovers, animal enthusiasts and inquiring minds alike.

The Ethnic Studies Spotlight collection is a collaborative initiative between the East Asian Library and the Center for Ethnic Studies Research (CESR), designed to highlight and support underrepresented areas within Ethnic Studies. The collection focuses on key communities central to the field—including Asian American, Black, Indigenous / Aboriginal and Pasifika, Latine groups—approached through local, regional, comparative, and transnational lenses. By curating works that explore the experiences and contributions of these communities, the collection aims to enrich scholarly resources, raise awareness of lesser-known narratives, and encourage deeper engagement with the diverse dimensions of race and ethnicity in the United States and beyond.

In a world increasingly shaped by digital connectivity, the year 2025 stands as a critical juncture for cybersecurity. From personal data on our smartphones to the complex networks that run our global infrastructure, every aspect of modern life is intertwined with technology. This dependence, however, brings with it a new set of risks. Cyber threats are a daily reality, with attacks becoming more sophisticated, automated, and powered by the same artificial intelligence that promises to make our lives easier. This book display explores the multifaceted landscape of cybersecurity today, offering a curated selection of resources that illuminate the challenges and solutions of this ever-evolving field.

As students and members of a university community, understanding cybersecurity is more than just a matter of technical knowledge—it’s about digital citizenship. Whether you’re a computer science major, a budding journalist, or a history student, the principles of protecting information and navigating the digital world securely are relevant to your academic and personal life. This collection delves into topics ranging from the evolution of ransomware and supply chain attacks to the critical role of biometric authentication and the looming threat of quantum computing. We invite you to explore these works and gain a deeper appreciation for the complex interplay of technology, privacy, and security in the 21st century.

Meyer’s Konversations-Lexikon, published by the Bibliographisches Institut founded by Joseph Meyer in 1826, was one of the leading German-language encyclopedias throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Following Germany’s division after the Second World War and the foundation of two ideologically competing German states in 1949 – the Federal Republic of Germany, a western-style parliamentary democracy, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), a Soviet-style socialist nation controlled by its communist party –, Meyer’s encyclopedia took a dramatic turn. From then on, it was published in two ideologically distinct versions. One was published by the now state-owned VEB Bibliographisches Institut in Leipzig, GDR, and the other by the Bibliographisches Institut in Mannheim, Federal Republic of Germany, established there by its former owners in 1953.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the Bibliographisches Institut in 1976, the two publishing houses produced ambitious and competing new editions of their encyclopedias: Meyer’s Neues Lexikon (18 vols., Leipzig, 1971-1978) and Meyer’s Enzyklopädisches Lexikon (25 vols., Mannheim, 1971-1979). Each represents a milestone in the history of encyclopedia publishing. The East German version was the last one ever produced in the GDR; the West German one saw one more edition before the Bibliographisches Institut in 1984 merged with F. A. Brockhaus, the other famous publisher of German-language encyclopedias.

Encyclopedias claim to present the knowledge of their time in an unbiased manner. However, a comparison of Meyer’s Neues Lexikon and Meyer’s Enzyklopädisches Lexikon reveals the extent to which knowledge is shaped by the political, social, and cultural context in which it is produced. While the two simultaneously produced German encyclopedias might be similar in content when it comes to entries in the fields of technology and natural sciences, they differ greatly in the coverage of politics, history, society and culture. A side-by-side comparison thus offers fascinating discoveries and intriguing insights into the contextual nature of knowledge production.

Complimenting these competing texts in this spotlight collection is a selection of titles from the University Library System’s general collection relating to the cultural, social, and political history of Germany in the 20th century, with particular emphasis on the post-WWII division of the country into East and West. The collection also includes material relating to the country’s evolution after reunification in 1990. For further assistance, please contact subject librarian Dan Pennell at pennell@pitt.edu.

“Early on in Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston’s book for aspiring animators, The Illusion of Life, they say the following about their chosen medium: “Once an artist sees his drawings come to life on the screen, he will never again be quite satisfied with any other type of expression.” The history of cinema is, ultimately, the history of animation. After all, cinema is, even in the era of digital dominance, a collection of still images viewed in sequence to create the illusion of motion--what is this if not animation? An “illusion of life,” as Thomas and Johnston describe it. Herein we seek to capture a broader canon of animation that considers its many facets: - the earliest forms of motion pictures - avant-garde art - short-form populist entertainment - children’s entertainment - an alternative mode of storytelling - a medium that allows filmmakers to push the bounds of reality”