history

The Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan brought together historians, museum curators, legal scholars, journalists, filmmakers, and other subject-matter experts for the Center’s second-annual flagship conference, Current Perspectives on the History of Guns and Society, which took place October 13-14. Through panel discussions, a film screening, and other sessions, the conference shed fresh light on the ever-expanding role of history in America’s contemporary gun discourse. [See photos from the event.] “How have the uses and meanings of guns changed over time?” asked Jennifer Tucker, professor of history and the Center’s founding director. “How does historical knowledge…

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a Dangers and Opportunities of Technology: Perspectives from the Humanities grant to Jennifer Tucker, Professor of History at Wesleyan University, and Stephen Hargarten, Professor of Emergency Medicine at Medical College of Wisconsin, (MCW) and the senior policy and injury science advisor for the Comprehensive Injury Center at MCW. The NEH grant supports their collaborative study Engineering Safety into U.S. Firearms, 1750-2010: Inventions, Manufacturers, Outcomes, & Implications. The two-year scholarly investigation is hosted at Wesleyan University within the Center for the Study of Guns and Society, which was established in 2022 with…

Every month in the US, roughly 70 women are shot and killed by their partners. Yet in February 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 1994 law banning firearms possession for people subject to domestic violence protection orders, part of a wave of lower-court challenges to gun regulations following the Supreme Court’s pivotal 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. With that background, the Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan convened historians, legal scholars, and gun violence prevention experts for a symposium, “Lessons from History on Domestic Violence, Firearms,…

On August 6, 1945, Toshiko Tanaka was a six-year-old on her way to school in Hiroshima, Japan, when, at 8:15 a.m., she looked up and watched the sky overhead turn blinding white. Tanaka didn’t talk about what happened next for more than 60 years: the burns that rendered her unrecognizable to her own mother, the corpses on the city’s riverbanks, the illnesses that struck down seemingly uninjured survivors, and the once-unimaginable devastation made real after the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima—the first of two times nuclear weapons have been used in conflict—near the close of World War II.…

Assistant Professor of African American Studies Kaisha Esty’s recent article on African American women's and girls’ battle during the Civil War over labor and sexual consent was named winner of the 2022 Letitia Woods Brown Article Prize for the best article in African American women’s history. The prize is awarded by the Association of Black Women Historians. “The shifting legal ground and character of the state that Black women and girls confronted reveals their fraught historical relationship to notions of sexual consent within the framework of Western liberalism. Their strategies speak to the ultimately burdened ways that African American women…

On the first night that Jonathan Holloway lived in the president’s residence at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, he decided to take his dogs for a walk. He gathered the usual gear – a collar, leash, and bags. After a moment of reflection Holloway grabbed his ID as well. Even though Holloway had just been appointed president of an institution encompassing over 100,000 people, as an African American man he wasn’t certain he could get back into his home safely if confronted by security. He had not, and would not, have a problem with anyone at Rutgers, but…

Are you already able to sing Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, Hon. ‘15’s Hamilton word for word? Have you already binged Bradley Whitford ’81, Hon. ’20 in “The West Wing” and “A Handmaid’s Tale"? Have you read all of Amy Bloom’s books? So now where do you go next to get your Wesleyan creative fix? As winter curls around us, Wes grads and faculty have conjured a new batch of books, music, performances, and television shows to delight and challenge us as we get cozy over the chilly months. Here’s just a small sampling: “From Scratch” Tembe Locke ’92’s powerful memoir From…

Forget the Christmas ham and the Fourth of July hot dog: there’s no ordinary-meal-turned-American-holiday-icon quite like the Thanksgiving turkey. In addition to adorning parade floats and being rendered via crayons and children’s splayed hands, turkey is expected to be at the center of the table for 85 percent of Thanksgiving celebrations this year. But turkey wasn’t the main course when the Wampanoags and Pilgrims convened for their legendary feast in 1621. In fact, it’s unclear whether it was on the menu at all: many experts believe fowl like duck, goose, or passenger pigeons were likelier complements to a feast that…

A new Jewett Center for Community Partnerships project hopes to encourage young people to see themselves as not just bystanders to the historical events shaping our world, but as having an important perspective on it worth preserving. The project, called “We Make History,” collects the personal expressions of Wesleyan students and local young people about the landmark events of the last several years, including the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. The students’ submissions, which could be pieces of writing, artwork, or video and audio recordings, will be archived at Olin Library and the Middlesex County Historical…

Assistant Professor of History Victoria Smolkin was recently a guest on BBC Radio 4's "Beyond Belief" to discuss Soviet state atheism. Smolkin said that Lenin's conviction that banishing religion was necessary to create a revolutionary society was right ideologically, but wrong politically. "If they wanted to stay in power, they needed to accommodate religion, and they understood that," she said. "However, if they wanted to build a Communist society, ultimately religion had to go." (more…)

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The pseudoscientific myths about love and sexuality that abounded in the Victorian era, many of which seem "cruel and oppressive" by today's standards, could also offer women relief from the era's "rigid gender politics," according to Associate Professor of History Jennifer Tucker, who comments on the topic for a Broadly article. For much of the 19th century, the Western world was fascinated with a variety of pseudosciences, or theories that lack a basis in the scientific method. "Definitions of science were malleable and hotly contested in the 19th century," said Tucker, who is also associate professor of science in society, associate professor…

Center for the Study of Guns and Society Explores History’s Growing Role in Understanding Firearms

NEH Awards Grant For Collaborative Study “Engineering Safety into U.S. Firearms: 1750-2010”

Center for the Study of Guns and Society Delves into the Links Between Firearms and Domestic Violence

Hiroshima Bombing Survivor Toshiko Tanaka Shares Her Story of Tragedy and Resilience

Esty’s Research Honored by Association of Black Women Historians

Holloway Lecture Launches Equity and Inclusion Week 2023

Wesleyan Creates: Recommendations

How Thanksgiving Became Turkey Day, According to Animal Studies Professor Elan Abrell

JCCP’s ‘We Make History’ Project Seeking Entries

Smolkin Discusses Soviet Atheism on BBC

First Indian Motorcycle Prototypes Built on Wesleyan’s Campus

Tucker Comments on Victorian Pseudoscience, Romance