GENED 1073: Guns in the U.S.: A Love Story

Registration for this Class is now Closed.

How does it feel to be a target?

Course Description:

The U.S. comprises 5% of the world’s population but holds approximately 40% of the world’s guns. We also experience more gun-related deaths than any economically comparable nation. How did the nation become a “gun culture,” and whose rights and interests does widespread armament serve? Who is included in the Second Amendment’s appeal to “the right of the people to have and bear arms,” and how have notions of race, gender, class, and sexuality framed popular understandings of “good guys” and “good women” whose armed citizenship is required for the nation’s security? We’ll read analyses from public health, history, literary/cultural studies, political science, and gender/ethnic studies to help unpack collective assumptions and historical blindspots about the purposes and effects of contemporary gun ownership.

Montana Ray, "when u broke the protective order" (2015)

Course Syllabus DRAFT

Course format:

Two lectures per week (TuTh) and a discussion section.

Typical enrollees:

This course is designed for anyone interested in U.S. "gun culture," particular its historical roots and its implications for contemporary public health and safety.

When is course typically offered?

Every other year.

What can students expect from you as an instructor?

I combine brief lectures (accompanied by visual media) to provide background and context, interspersed with interactive activities, e.g. discussions of course readings and primary sources, debates, and small group policy sessions.

Assignments and grading:

There is a short writing assignment based on the analysis of historical primary documents; an in-class mid-term and final; and a final project in which students use one of the course archives/databases to address a vexing question of their choice.

Meredith BergmannLinks to an external site., "Mother and Child with Glock: Response to Random Murder III: December 14, 2012, Newtown, CT, 28 dead" (2015)

Emory Douglas, "Warning to America" (1970)

Check out Dr. Celine Gounder's podcast, American DiagnosisLinks to an external site.. 
Season 3 is on Gun Violence in America. 
On doctors and gun violence: when NRA leadership told doctors to "stay in their lane," they responded, "#ThisIsOurLane"