Jennifer Tucker

On Sept. 14-15, Jennifer Tucker, associate professor of history, organized a conference titled “Firearms and the Common Law Tradition," which was held at The Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. In this Q&A, Tucker discusses the significance of the conference: Q: What was distinctive about the Firearms and the Common Law Conference? A: As far as we are aware, it was the first time that most of the historians and legal scholars involved in the debate over the Second Amendment and common law traditions relating to firearms have been in the same room and exchanged their views face to face and in pre-circulated papers.…

Jennifer Tucker, associate professor of history, is organizing a conference titled "Firearms and the Common Law Tradition" to be held at the The Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., Sept. 14-15. Topics will include "The Uses of Guns," "Laws Regulating Carriage of Guns," "Guns and the Supreme Court: The Influence of History," and "Guns and Constitutional Rights." Focused on the ways in which historical arguments have become important for the judicial debate about guns in America, the discussion will feature Darrell Miller, professor of law at Duke University School of Law and Eugene Volokh, the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the UCLA…

Associate Professor of History Jennifer Tucker is the co-author of an op-ed in the Boston Globe titled, "What the Clean Air Act can teach us about reducing gun violence." Tucker and co-author Matthew Miller of Northeastern University write, "The recent scandal over Volkswagen’s polluting engines vividly illustrates the contrast between the way Americans, and in particular elected officials, treat guns and the way we (and our elected officials) treat cars — both of which kill approximately 32,000 Americans every year." The Clean Air Act, passed in 1970, has averted tens of thousands of premature deaths though "a systematic and scientific approach to…

At a time when gun deaths are spiking and Congress has failed to enact significant legislation to tackle the problem, Associate Professor of History Jennifer Tucker writes an op-ed looking at how we got here. She contends that it is Hollywood’s version of history—not reality—that is behind the belief that guns have been a critical part of American culture over centuries. She writes: The 1953 movie “Shane” exemplifies the narrative of a “good man with a gun.” Responding to a woman’s wish that guns be banished, Shane replies: “A gun is just a tool, Marian. It’s as good or bad as…

Two Wesleyan faculty received NEH Public Scholarships to encourage new research and support their upcoming publications. Only 36 writers in the country received the award. The Public Scholar program, a major new initiative from the National Endowment for the Humanities, is designed to promote the publication of scholarly nonfiction books for a general audience. On July 29, the NEH awarded a total of $1.7 million to 36 writers including Wesleyan’s Jennifer Tucker, associate professor of history, and Andrew Curran, the William Armstrong Professor of the Humanities and professor of French.

On May 2, the Wesleyan Symposium on Risk brought together faculty and students for an interdisciplinary discussion of risk. The event was sponsored by American Studies, the Center for the Humanities, the College of Letters, Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship, the Neuroscience and Behavior Program, the Science in Society Program, and the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies support funds. (Photos by Hannah Norman '16) (more…)

As a 2015 Humanities Research Centre Visiting Fellow, Associate Professor Jennifer Tucker will study Victorian sustainability, photography, law and river pollution prevention reform at Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia. Her appointment will be May 15-July 15. Tucker's ongoing research, tentatively titled “Science Against Industry: Photographic Technologies and the Visual Politics of Pollution Reform,” traces the historical roots of the use of visual evidence in environmental science and pollution reform. Using nearly 300 visual representations (drawings, engravings photographs, and graphs) from archives and libraries, many of which have never previously been studied, she analyzes the scientific impact of new forms of visual representation in chemical climatology and examines the…

An essay by Associate Professor of History Jennifer Tucker is included in The Five Photographs that (You Didn’t Know) Changed Everything, a five-part BBC radio series focusing on historically important yet little-known photographs. In her segment, The Tichborne Claimant, Tucker tells the story of how an 1866 photograph of a butcher in Wagga Wagga, Australia, played a central role in a case that gripped Victorian Britain and had an enormous impact on our legal system, raising questions about what photography is for and how it should be used. Says Tucker: “Sometimes even a mundane photograph can have a powerful and…

Four faculty from the History Department participated in the American Historical Association Meeting in New York City Jan. 2-5. The topic was "History and Other Disciplines." Professor of History Ethan Kleinberg presented “Just the Facts: The Fantasy of a Historical Science." Kleinberg also is the director of the Center for the Humanities, professor of letters and executive editor of History and Theory. Assistant Professor of History Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock spoke on “From a Society Free of Religion to Freedom of Conscience: How Toleration Emerged from within Totalitarianism." She also is assistant professor of Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian studies and tutor in the College of…

Tucker, Danaparamita '13 on the British Museum's loan of the Parthenon marbles to Russia

Associate Professor Jennifer Tucker has been selected for a Fulbright-U.S. Scholar Award, through which she will spend eight months at the University of York in England. Tucker is a historian of British science, technology and medicine, specializing in the study of the connections among British science, photography and the visual arts from 1850 to 1920. At the University of York, she will complete work on her second book, tentatively titled, Facing Facts: The Tichborne Cause Célèbre and the Rise of Modern Visual Evidence. She also plans to begin preliminary research toward her next book project, which will trace the social…

Jennifer Tucker will serve as interim director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, beginning immediately through the end of the fall 2013 semester. Tucker has accepted this position in order to enable the faculty and the university to formulate a vision for the Allbritton Center that will engage the curriculum and faculty scholarship, and enhance the intellectual life of the university. Her work this year will provide a framework for strategic planning and guide the search for a new director. Tucker is chair and associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, associate professor of history,…

Tucker’s Conference Encourages Dialogue between Historians, Legal Scholars on the Topic of Firearms

Tucker Coordinates Firearms, Constitutional Rights Conference Sept. 14-15

Jennifer Tucker Talks Gun Control in Boston Globe op-ed, on WNPR’s ‘Scramble’

Tucker on the Wild West, Hollywood and Gun Control

NEH Supports Research, Writing Projects by Tucker, Curran

Faculty, Students Discuss Risk at Symposium

Tucker to Study Victorian Sustainability, River Pollution Prevention Reform as Visiting Fellow

Tucker Explores Photography’s Powerful Role in Our Legal System

History Faculty Participate in American Historical Association Meeting

Tucker: Can Culture Transcend Russia-West Conflict?

Tucker to Study Modern Visual Evidence as Fulbright Fellow in England

Tucker to Serve as Interim Director of Allbritton Center