Ann Swidler Lisa Stampnitzky University of California, Berkeley
This doctoral dissertation improvementn project investigates the origins and development of a specialized field of terrorism studies in the United States over the past thirty years. The key question is, how has 'terrorism expertise' has been defined: whose expertise is considered legitimate, and why? This project draws on a variety of sources in order to assemble a comprehensive picture of the forces shaping the area of terrorism expertise, including records of conferences on terrorism, a content analysis of specialized journals on terrorism, congressional testimony by terrorism experts, information on sources and patterns of funding for the study of terrorism, and interviews with terrorism experts. Although terrorism has elicited growing interest among social scientists since 9/11, there have not yet been any comprehensive studies of how terrorism studies emerged as a field of inquiry, and the social forces affecting what sorts of people could become experts in this field. This study is expected to contribute to larger questions in the field of sociology relating to the creation of expert knowledge and the questions of how politicians, the public, and other officials decide which experts are worth listening to. The sort of knowledge produced about terrorism will frame a nation's perceptions of the dangers it faces and the range of options conceptually available to it as it formulates its response.
Broader Impacts. The type of knowledge that experts dispense is likely to have a significant effect upon counterterrorism policies, as well as public understandings of terrorism. By better understanding the role that expert knowledge has played in the creation of policy, and the factors structuring the delegation of expert authority, we may be able to move forward more consciously in the production and use of such knowledge in the future.
