Richard Sobel explores the relationships between citizens and governments. His work includes the policy analysis of privacy and confidentiality issues, particularly on constitutional and policy questions about governmental databanks and identification schemes. He also explores the influence of public opinion on foreign and national security policies in the U.S. and abroad. The privacy and foreign policy strands became more closely allied in the post-911 era of concerns for how international issues like anti-terrorism in national security affect the domestic realm, including civil liberties.
Currently, Dr. Sobel is a Visiting Scholar at the Buffett Center at Northwestern, and recently was an Associate of the Du Bois Institute at Harvard. Previously, he was a Fellow at the Berkman Center on Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. During his fellowship, he worked on issues of privacy and cyberspace," including organizing a session on Privacy and Cyber/Spaces: Medical and Other Cases. He was also a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy in the Kennedy School of Government, in the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, and a non-resident Fellow at the Du Bois Institute. He has been a Senior Research Associate and continues as a Participant and presenter in the Program in Psychiatry and the Law at Harvard Medical School and Senior Research Associate at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research in Storrs, CT.
In teaching and researching at Princeton, Smith College, University of Connecticut, Harvard and Northwestern, his courses include public policy analysis, the social consequences of technology, social movements, the Supreme Court and Privacy, and public opinion in foreign policy. He is a former board member of the Eastern Connecticut Civil Liberties Union and of the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union Technology and Privacy Committee. He is a founder and director of the Cyber Privacy Project in Cambridge and Chicago. He has been a member of the New York Times College Program Advisory Board, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR), Midwest Political Science Association, and the American Political Science Association. He has been a consultant on public opinion to the New York Times/CBS poll, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations study of American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute on Race and Justice, and organizations concerned with privacy, rights and medical confidentiality.
The author and editor of five books and numerous scholarly, law and policy publications Dr. Sobel's work and comments on privacy, confidentiality, and public and foreign policies have appeared in the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, CNN.com, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Newsday, USA Today, Time International and Washington Post. He has been interviewed on privacy, confidentiality, citizenship, immigration, and foreign affairs on NPR, WGN, CNN and CBS radio affiliates and on WGBH and Global TV. He has spoken on "The Bill of Rights," "National Identity Systems," "The HIPAA Paradox: The Privacy Rule that's Not," and "The Impact of Public Opinion on U.S. Foreign Policy since Vietnam." He keynoted "The Conference on International Information Policy and E-Society" at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. A native of Chicago, Dr. Sobel received a bachelor degree from Princeton University and a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
He can be contacted by email at rsobel@hms.harvard.edu