Tracy L. Barnett is a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia. Rifles—their meaning to men and their availability in nineteenth-century America—are at the center of her work. Her dissertation, “Men and Their Guns: The Culture of Self-Deputized Manhood in the South, 1850–1877,” analyzes the historic origins of America’s gun culture and its mutually constitutive relationship to white supremacist ideology.
Her work has been supported by the American Historical Association; Boston Athenæum; Smithsonian Institutions; Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library; Georgia Historical Society; National Sporting Library & Museum; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and UGA's Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts.
She frequently presents her scholarship at national conferences and has reviewed books for major journals. She regularly contributes to the Civil War Monitor, a popular magazine devoted to the Civil War Era. In addition to her traditional scholarship, she is a trained digital historian and the project manager of the Athens Death Project.
Along with her feline familiar, she lives and works in Washington, D.C.
Research
Selected Publications
"The Sandy Hook settlement could transform the centuries-old marketing of guns,” Washington Post (February 23, 2022).
“Mississippi ‘Milish’: Militiamen in the Civil War,” Civil War History, Vol. 66, No 4 (December 2020): 343-379.
“Forty Rod,” “French Leave,” “Grapevine Telegraph,” “Seeing the Elephant,” “Suits of Shoddy,” “Grin and Bear it,” “Kicking and Kissing Ass,” and "Bully Boys,” in the “Fighting Words” series, The Civil War Monitor (2020-2022).
“Holiday Toasts and Homesick Rebels: How the Civil War changed Christmas in the South”The Civil War Monitor, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Winter 2019).
Education
MA, United States History, University of Southern Mississippi, 2017
BA, History, Millersville University of Pennsylvania, 2014
Other Information
Baird Society Resident Scholar Program, Smithsonian Institution, 2022
Albert J. Beveridge Grant, American Historical Association, 2021
Caleb Loring Jr. Fellowship, Boston Athenæum, 2021-2022
Dissertation Fellowship, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, 2021-2022
Dooley Distinguished Research Fellowship, Georgia Historical Society, 2021-2022
Lewis P. Jones Research Fellowship in South Carolina History, University of South Carolina, 2021
Exploratory Research Grant, Hagley Museum and Library, 2021
John H. Daniels Fellowship, National Sporting Library and Museum, 2021
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation & Humanities Without Walls Pre-Doctoral Career Diversity Fellowship, 2021
Center for Civil War Studies Research Grant, Virginia Tech, 2020-2021
Andrew W. Mellon Research Fellowship, Virginia Museum of History and Culture, 2020
John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History Fellowship, University of Virginia, 2020
Louisiana State University Libraries Special Collections Research Grant, 2020
Pre-Dissertation Prospectus Fellowship, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Summer 2019
