Jennifer Carlson, PhD

I am an Associate Professor of Sociology and Government & Public Policy at the University of Arizona and a 2022 MacArthur Fellow.

I write, teach, and speak widely about how guns shape American life, including those who survive gun violence’s harrowing aftermath, police who enforce the country’s complex gun laws, gun sellers and retailers who are on the front lines of surges in gun purchasing, and the people who choose to own and carry guns.

I am currently working with a team of research assistants on a National Science Foundation-funded project aimed at unraveling the impacts and aftermath of gun violence on gun violence survivors—broadly defined. It aims at better understanding how gun violence extracts a significant cost–psychically, emotionally and beyond–on the lives of people in the US and the consequences for their social and political lives. You can read some of my co-authored work with Madison Armstrong on gun trauma in our New York Times op-ed and our peer-reviewed article “Speaking of Trauma.” If you’d like to stay updated on this research, you can follow @survivingguns on twitter. 

I can be reached at jennifercarlson AT email DOT arizona DOT edu. You can also follow me on twitter (@jdawncarlson).