Guns and Society
HIST 231
Fall 2023
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
SISP 231, FGSS 252, AMST 231 |
Students will discuss some of the key questions that animate the emerging interdisciplinary field of gun studies, considering guns as objects and symbols and as sites of both shared and contested meanings in everyday life. Readings will include 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, exploring 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 will be put on visual studies, museum studies and public history, science and technology studies, public health, and legal history. Assignments include four shorter (2-page) papers and a 15-page final research paper. Each student, working in small groups, will also deliver a 10-minute presentation and have 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).
(This course is a prerequisite for individualized humanities "labs" designed for students to delve into a particular aspect of the topic of guns and society in a more applied way in the spring semester, through special projects that can include an individually designed research paper, a museum/archives project, a theater sketch, a podcast, a high school teaching module, an art project, an exhibit in a local museum, an oral history project, or a syllabus, among other possibilities to be discussed with the instructor.) |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST)(HIST-MN)(HIST)(STS) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
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