Historical and Current Perspectives on Guns and Society

4th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference

Hosted by the Center for the Study of Guns & Society

9:30am

Continental breakfast & check-in

10am

Welcome, Jennifer Tucker, CSGS Founding Director

10:15 - 10:45am 

Panel 1 - Research on Guns and Society

Moderator: Joe Stoltz

• Henry Lahue '26 (Amherst College), “Nihilistic Terror: Contemporary School Shooters and Their Manifestos”

• Lane Daniels '28, “Vulnerable, Empowered, & Protective: Women with Guns”

• Grace Lee '29,  “Armed Histories: Mapping U.S. Social Movements, Gun Laws, and NRA Messaging Across Time”

10:45 - 11:15am

Panel 2 - Amicus Curiae Briefs as a Classroom Project: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Contemporary Case Law

Moderator: Evan Turiano (Trinity College)

• Charlotte Murphree '27 (Trinity College), "Gator's Custom Guns, Inc., et al., v. Washington"

• Ryan O’Boyle '26 (Trinity College), "Connecticut v. Brandon Ramos"

• Meg Lavinder '28 (Trinity College), "National Rifle Association v. Mark Glass"

11:15 - 11:20am

Public History as a Career Path

• Leah Glaser, Professor of History, Central Connecticut State University

11:20 - 11:30am

History at Wesleyan: Interdisciplinary Engagements with the Special Collections and Archives

• Fiona O’Reilly '26

11:30am - 12:30pm

Present Arms: The Past, Present, and Future of Exhibiting Revolutionary-Era Firearms

• Ken Cohen, Chair, Division of Military & Society; Curator of Early American History; National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

12:30 - 1:15pm

Lunch and student research displays

Introduction: Katherine Brunson, Jennifer Tucker

• Malcolm Hsu '25 , “Forecasting Firearm Innovation: A Time Series Analysis of U.S. Patent Trends & Macroeconomic Influencers, 1820 - 2025”

History and Archaeology of Industrial Connecticut Student Research Posters

• Rebecca Avelar '28, "Buttons of Industrial CT and the Invisible Labor of Women"

• Mae Cohen '27, "Buttoning Up: The Gendered Boundaries of 19th Century Industry and Society"

• Cecilia Coughlin '27, "Buttons and the Rise of Industrial Connecticut"

• Elizabeth Berke '26, "The Druggist and Patent Industry: Medicinal Practices in Industrial Connecticut"

• Katherine Currie '26, "A Day in the Life of Female Textile Mill Workers, 19th & 20th C."

• AP Didier '26, "Pipe Stems. Cigarette Butts of the Past?"

• Alex Fox '28, "Dinner Plates of the Danforths"

• Brynn Heller '27, "Tracing 19 Vine Street's History Through Earthware Marbles"

• Caroline Johnson '27, "New England Burial and Race: A Case Study of Washington Street Cemetery"

• Alex Lara '27, "A Railroad's Path: Railroad Building in 19th Century Connecticut"

• Ian Moran '26, "The Rise and Fall of a Middletown Merchant: Charles Magill"

• Magnolia Willey '29, The Eliots and the Invention of Sand Iron"

1:15 - 2pm

Panel 3 - Research on Religion and Firearms

Moderator: Joseph Slaughter

• Keira Walsh '28, “Saints of the Sword: An Analysis of Violence and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”

• Maggie Smith '27, “The Battle Over Gun Regulation in Louisiana: Christianity’s Influence on the Gun Policy Clash between New Orleans Officials and The Louisiana Legislature”

• Parker McCoog '29,  “Armed with Salvation: Firearms and Weapons Depiction in Chick Tracts”

• Jake Klasky '28, “Framing the Gun: Semantic Differences in Firearm Discourse Across Liberal, Center, and Conservative Christian Periodicals”

2 - 2:15pm 

The Roots of Political Violence in Port Gibson, Mississippi, 1874-1875

• Lucile Bruce, GLS '25

2:15 - 2:45pm

Panel 4 - Firearm Patents

Moderator: Maryam Gooyabadi

• Ethan Chu '26, “The Linkage Coefficient: Tracing Safety Patent Innovation Across Time”

• Roberto Torres, PhD candidate, “Mapping Innovation Pathways: A Citation Network Analysis of Firearm Patents”

• Eli Cohen '28, “Adolescent Access to Firearms Technology”

2:45 - 3pm

Wrap-up, concluding remarks

3 - 3:30pm

Reception