Richard Hofstetter

C. Richard Hofstetter is Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor in the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University. He received an AA from Central Oregon Community College in 1962, a BA from the University of Oregon in 1964, an MA in 1966 and a PhD in 1967 from Indiana University, and is Cho Dan (black belt) with the International Tang Soo Do Federation and currently works out in the Kuk Sul Won discipline. He has been a professor at Ohio State University, the University of Houston (where he was chair), and San Diego State University, and has founded and/or directed several interdisciplinary social science laboratories notably Polimetrics at the Ohio State University.

Professor Hofstetter has published over 200 refereed articles and several books in the social sciences, communications, public health, and medicine. His substantive interests in political and social science include political psychology, communication, behavioral modification, research methods, statistics, and computer applications. He is well known for his work in public health identifying social structures that increase the likelihood of tobacco use. His primary interest in medicine has been Alzheimer's disease (AD) while working as a researcher at the University of California San Diego Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. His substantive research has been conducted primarily in multiethnic, interdisciplinary settings concerning less advantaged youth and adults in American society.

He has conducted large-scale surveys, NATURAL experiments, and experimental studies, and has lectured on these topics in Europe and Asia. Some of his current work has analyzed the impact of political talk radio among various publics, the role of mass media in tobacco initiation and cessation, and ideational dimensions of feminism. Under a grant from the National Institute of Health (Cancer), he is currently directing a major study of tobacco and other health behaviors among people of Korean descent in California and in Seoul. Professor Hofstetter is also well known for mentoring future academic scholars.