Guns and Society

Guns and Society
HISTORY 231, Fall 2022, Fall 2023
Instructor: Jennifer Tucker 
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Students discussed some of the key questions that animate the emerging interdisciplinary field of gun studies, considering guns as objects, symbols, and sites of both shared and contested meanings in everyday life. Readings included recent scholarship about the evolution of gun technologies and the changing place of guns in U.S. society, from the colonial era through to the present day. We explored how the history of guns in U.S. history is relevant to other histories, including studies of race, gender, class, labor and capital, social movements, and military and civilian life. Special focus was put on visual studies, museum studies and public history, science and technology studies, public health, and legal history. Assignments included four shorter (2-page) papers, a 15-page final research paper, and a 10-minute presentation. Students had opportunities for site visits to local museums and gun violence memorials such as the Coltsville National Historic Park (Hartford), Springfield Armory National Historic Site (Springfield, Massachusetts), and the Connecticut Gun Violence Memorial (New Haven).