Collaboration

Partnering to Shape a Field Together

CSGS actively engages with colleagues across disciplines through conversations, events, and collaborative research. Together, we are building a new field of scholarship focused on the cultural, historical, and social study of firearms in America.

Collaborative Partners & Organizations

The Lancet

Prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, invited CSGS founding director Jennifer Tucker to be a member of The Lancet Commission on Global Gun Violence and Health. Launched in September 2024, the commission’s mission is to combine the best research and practice to translate research findings, ensure participation of civil society, and catalyze evidence-informed action at local, national, regional, and international levels. An in-depth description of the commission’s work is available here.

America 250

CSGS is in the early planning stages of a collaboration to reassess the role of American militias during the eight years of the War for Independence. Plans include publishing new scholarship and creating a minuteman monument that tells the story of various participants of the Revolution through the objects they carried with them. Partners include Glenn LaVertu, CSGS artist in residence and faculty member at Parsons, the New School of Design; Kevin M. Sweeney, professor of American Studies and History, emeritus, at Amherst College, and several museums.

This collaboration will coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.

Coltsville National Historical Park

In 2023, undergraduates from Wesleyan University, Brown University, and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) worked in collaboration with the National Park Service’s Coltsville National Historical Park in Hartford, CT on a cross-disciplinary research and design project that created detailed concepts for future exhibits about New England’s hidden gun history.

For three years, Brown students in Steven Lubar’s curatorship courses collaborated with RISD students in Francesca Liuni’s exhibition design courses to develop plans for museum exhibits. Brown students determined content and shape the stories to be told, and RISD students created spatial narratives and drew up plans for the exhibition. In 2023, Wesleyan students, working with Jennifer Tucker, CSGS founding director, undertook research for the Coltsville project and developed lists of objects and images for a future exhibition.

The project was supported by a grant from the New England Humanities Consortium.

Conferences & Panels

Fall 2025 Conference: Current Perspectives on the History of Guns and Society

October 10 – 11, 2025 The Center for the Study of Guns & Society is...

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CSGS Fall 2024 Conference: Presentation Summaries

Center for the Study of Guns & Society hosts third-annual conference at a pivotal moment...

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Historical Perspectives on Guns in Contemporary Society

Moderator: Sean McCann (Wesleyan University) Panelists: Demetrius L. Eudell (Wesleyan University): “Carceral Connecticut Project: The...

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God and Guns: Faith and Firearms in American History

Moderator:  Joseph Slaughter (Associate Director, Center for the Study of Guns & Society) Panelists: Katherine...

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Nineteenth-Century Contexts of Gun Rights & Regulations

Moderator:  Roberto Saba (Wesleyan University) Panelists:  Jonathan Obert (Amherst College): “The Economic Origins of American...

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Quantifying Arms Lethality in Historical Perspective

Discussant: Peter Rutland (Wesleyan) Christopher Lawrence (The Dupuy Institute, VA): “Evolution of Weapons and Warfare”...

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Guns in Colonial and Antebellum America

Moderator: Crystal Feimster (Yale University) Panelists: David J. Silverman (George Washington University): “The First American...

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Student Research Presentations

Moderator: Jennifer Tucker (Founding Director, Center for the Study of Guns & Society, and Associate...

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