Prof. Udi Sommer is an associate professor at the Political Science Department at Tel Aviv University and a member of the Israeli Young Academy for Science. He joined the faculty at Tel Aviv in Fall 2010 after teaching at the University at Albany: State University of New York at the political science department there (PhD, Stony Brook University, 2007; MA Tel Aviv University, 2002; BA The Hebrew University, 1999).
Prof. Udi Sommer‘s broad research interests are in American and comparative politics, public law and rights as well as political methodology. In the cyber context, he focuses on human and civil rights in a hyper connected online reality as those are reflected in legislation and in rulings of the Supreme Court. In addition, he is a senior member of the scientific council of the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University. In addition, he specializes in the analysis of political institutions and legal evolution. His book about agenda setting on the Supreme Court of the United States was published in 2014 with Palgrave-MacMillan and his next book is about sexual minority rights in a comparative perspective. His scholarship has appeared in publications such as Comparative Political Studies, The Law and Society Review, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Political Studies, Judicature, and the Justice System Journal.
He is a recipient of several grants and fellowships including the Marie Curie Grant from the European Union, Fulbright Doctoral Fellowship and the National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant. His work has been presented at the annual meetings of the American, European, Midwest, Southern and Western Political Science Associations. He has teaching experience at the graduate and undergraduate levels at Tel Aviv University, the University at Albany and Stony Brook University. Classes include at the PhD level-Math for Political Scientists, Civil Rights and Liberties, Research Methods, Survey Class in Judicial Politics; at the MA level-Advanced Statistics for Public Policy; and, at the BA level-Comparative Politics, American Supreme Court, Constitutional Law and Politics: USA and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Prof. Udi Sommer has appeared as an expert commentator on WKGO San Francisco, Israeli TV Channels 1, 2 & 10, Christian Science Monitor, Haaretz.com (English), ynet.co.il, Haaretz newspaper, Galatz Israeli Radio and Knesset TV Channel. Likewise, he is regularly engaged in community activity on and off campus including giving talks to the general public, advising government and NGOs, being invited to give a commencement speech, and volunteering with individuals with disabilities. Prior to his academic career, he is the founder and director of several social programs for youth of underprivileged background, including at Dor Shalom (Generation for Peace) and the Summer Youth University, and had had advanced training in clinical psychology.
