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Dr. Robert C. Richards, Jr., is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Open Governance Lab at the Clinton School of Public Service. He teaches courses that bridge communication and public policy, including Communication Processes and Social (Ex)Change and Ethical and Legal Dimensions of Public Service. He will also teach Artificial Intelligence in Public Service in Fall 2026.
Dr. Richards’s research centers on democratic deliberation, participatory governance, and citizen engagement. His work investigates how citizens communicate and participate in legal and political systems, with specific interests in intercultural communication, sense-making, and political information flow.
He is a lead researcher on several major international and domestic projects, including:
- The Participedia Project, an international effort studying how citizens participate in governance globally.
- The Citizens’ Initiative Review research team, which investigates methods of citizen deliberation.
- The Arkansas Civic Health Index project, which evaluated the quality of civic engagement across the state.
Dr. Richards regularly translates this research into public service by co-organizing public deliberations and dialogues on issues relevant to Arkansas residents, in cooperation with organizations like the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute and the Central Arkansas Library System.
Additionally, he has co-authored articles in numerous academic journals, including Journal of Applied Communication Research and PLoS ONE, and regularly presents research at the conferences for the National Communication Association and the Law and Society Association.
Dr. Richards received his Ph.D. in Communication Arts and Sciences from Penn State University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Prior to joining the Clinton School, he was a postdoctoral teaching fellow at Penn State University.
- Ph.D., Communication Arts and Sciences, Penn State University
- J.D., Law, University of Virginia School of Law
- M.S., Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- M.A., Communication Studies, University of Iowa
- B.A., English Language and Literature, Yale University
- Research Areas
- Civic engagement
- Democratic deliberation
- Participatory governance
- Political and legal communication and information
- Sense-making
- Peer-reviewed Articles
- Nillasithanukroh, S., Park, C. H., Baek, J., Ahn, G.-J., & Richards, R. (accepted August 16, 2025). Mapping the landscape of cybersecurity preparedness: A systematic review of non-technological determinants and consequences. Technology in Society, 83. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2025.103042
- Park, C. H., Driver, N., Richards, R. C., & Ward, P. (2025). The effects of CenteringPregnancy: A quasi- experimental evaluation. Healthcare, 13(9), 1052. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13091052
- Wolfe, A. W., Black, L. W., Collins, J. W., Kay, C., Han, S.-H., Williams, C., & Richards, R. C. (2025). Rethinking narrative sensemaking: In/Congruity and the production of precarious storied orders. Communication Monographs. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2025.2467696
- Burkhalter, S., & Richards, R. (2024). The Oregon Citizen Assembly Pilot on COVID-19 Recovery: Participatory governing through contagion. In L. J. Chua & J. J. G. Lee (Eds.), Contagion, technology, and law at the limits (pp. 143–162). Hart Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509970735.ch-007
- Rountree, J., Park, C. H., & Richards, R. (2024). The Washington Climate Assembly: Note-taking modalities as deliberative guidance in an online citizens’ assembly. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 52(3), 338–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2024.2319630
- Gastil, J., Már Ársælsson, K., Knobloch, K. R., Brinker, D. L., Richards, R., Reedy, J., & Burkhalter, S. (2023). Deliberative panels as a source of public knowledge: A large-sample test of the Citizens’ Initiative Review. PLoS ONE, 18(7), e0288188. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288188
- Harris, J., Richards, R., Hopper, J., Park, C. H., Hawkins, C., *Hollenbeck, C., & *Vestal, S. (2023). Connecting citizen voices to the policy process: The Rockefeller ethic. National Civic Review, 112(3), 24–36. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48749307
- Miousse, I. R., Hale, R. B., Alsbrook, S., Boysen, G., Broadnax, T., Murry, C., Williams, C., Park, C. H., Richards, R., Reedy, J., Chalbot, M.-C., Kavouras, I. G., & Koturbash, I. (2023). Climate change and new challenges for rural communities: Particulate matter matters. Sustainability, 15(23), 16192. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152316192
- Park, C. H., *Ajayi, J. O., *Abdul-Bey, K., *Chue, B., & Richards, R. (2023). 2023 Arkansas civic health index. National Conference on Citizenship. https://ncoc.org/2023-arkansas-civic-health-index/
- Park, C. H., Driver, N., Richards, R., & Ward, P. (2023). The effects of CenteringPregnancy on maternal and infant health outcomes: A moderation analysis. Journal of Public Health, 45(4), e746–e754. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdad146
- Brinker, D. L., Morrell, M., Reedy, J. S., & Richards, R. (Eds.). (2022). Special issue: Psychological phenomena in democratic deliberation. Journal of Deliberative Democracy, 18(2). https://delibdemjournal.org/issue/121/info/
- Gastil, J., Anderson, C., Black, L. W., Burkhalter, S., Han, S.-H., Park, C. H., Reedy, J., Richards, R., & Rountree, J. (2022). Convening a minipublic during a pandemic: A case study of the Oregon Citizens’ Assembly Pilot on COVID-19 Recovery. Digital Government: Research and Practice, 13(2), 13:1–13:19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3524064
- Park, C. H., Richards, R., & Reedy, J. (2022). Assessing emergency information sharing between the government and the public during the COVID-19 pandemic: An open government perspective. Public Performance and Management Review, 45(4), 828–859. https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2022.2048400
- Richards, R., Morrell, M., Reedy, J. S., & Brinker, D. L. (2022). Introduction: Psychological phenomena in democratic deliberation. [Introductory essay for: Special issue: Psychological phenomena in democratic deliberation]. Journal of Deliberative Democracy, 18(2), Article 1277, pp. 1–7. https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.1277
- Richards, R., & Neblo, M. A. (2022). Active is as active does: Deliberative and non-deliberative political communication in context. Journal of Deliberative Democracy, 18(2), Article 941, pp. 1–17. https://doi.org/10.16997/10.16997/jdd.941
- Richards, R. (2018). Deliberative mini-publics as a partial antidote to authoritarian information strategies. Journal of Public Deliberation, 14(2), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.305
- Richards, R. (2018). Making policy information relevant to citizens: A model of deliberative mini-publics, applied to the Citizens’ Initiative Review. Policy & Politics, 46, 445–465. https://doi.org/10.1332/030557317X15072086904223
- Research Areas
- Civic education
- Intercultural communication
- Listening sessions
- Program evaluation
- Public dialogues and deliberations
- Strategic visioning
- Applied Research, Grants, and Service Projects
- Co-investigator, Arkansas Civic Health Index (Chul Hyun Park, Principal Investigator), Engage Arkansas, Arkansas Community Foundation, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, and Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
- Co-author with Chul Hyun Park, Nichola Driver, and Penny Ward, Centering Pregnancy: Communication and Social Support in Prenatal-Care Groups.
- Principal Investigator, Designing, Conducting, and Evaluating Strategic Visioning Meetings, Arkansas Wildlife Federation in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation.
- Co-investigator, Developing Actionable Science Priorities for Cultural Resources through Deliberative Forums in Tribal and Marginalized Communities (Laura Bray, Principal Investigator), U.S. Geological Survey, South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center.
- Co-investigator, Participedia Phase Two: Strengthening Democracy by Mobilizing Knowledge of Democratic Innovations (Bonny Ibhawoh, Principal Investigator), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
- Co-investigator, Storytelling in Online Healthcare Dialogues (Laura W. Black, Principal Investigator), Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society at Villanova University.
- Artificial Intelligence in Public Service
- Communication Processes and Social (Ex)Change
- Legal and Ethical Dimensions of Public Service