THIS MONTH'S PAPERS examine the role of experts in shaping public policy and guiding public opinion. By shining a spotlight on policy wonks, demographers, and geographers, our presenters help us understand the cultures, ideologies, and histories of “expertise.”

Negar’s paper looks at the broader social milieu of the "U.S. foreign policy establishment" in which foreign policy experts are embedded. She explores the various tools of power, hierarchies, collective norms, affective technologies, and obligations that shape how Washington policy elites produce and reproduce power in the realm of foreign policy.

Kristian's paper traces the relationship between urbanization, as defined by demographers, and development between World War II and the late 1960s. He looks at the changing definition of metropolitan space in the United States and the ways in which "urbanization” sloughed its past, positive connotations and took on a new, negative meaning in both popular and academic discourse.