Culture Initiative | Stanford Leadership Institute

Culture pervades how people think, feel, connect, and act — shaping everything from how children learn language to how leaders manage conflict, from how scientists innovate to how organizations adapt.

The Culture Initiative is an intellectual hub and collaborative community dedicated to advancing fundamental research on culture and translating it into real-world impact.

Leading Culture Research

With faculty affiliates spanning more than a dozen departments and schools across Stanford, the initiative brings together anthropologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, economists, sociologists, linguists, political scientists, biologists and computer scientists who combine a diverse toolkit of methods at the forefront of culture research – including years-long ethnographic immersion, AI-powered analyses of internet-scale language data, cross-cultural network experiments, brain imaging, and more. The initiative fosters the cross-pollination of perspectives and insights through thematic workshops, seminar series, graduate affiliates, and micro-grants for exploratory research.

You can learn more about the research of our affiliated faculty through the links below.

Journal Article | Migration and the Making of the English Middle Class

Vasiliki Fouka & Theo Serlin

National Bureau of Economic Research. January 2026.

Working Paper | Emergent Directedness in Social Contagion

Fabian Tschofenig & Douglas Guilbeault

October 2025.

Journal Article | Cultural Defaults in the Time of COVID: Lessons for the Future

Markus, H. R., Tsai, J. L., Uchida, Y., Yang, A. M., & Maitreyi, A

Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 2024

Journal Article | Norm Dynamics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Social Norm Emergence, Persistence, and Change

Michele J. Gelfand

Annual Review Psychology. January 2024

Journal Article | Half a century of quantitative cultural evolution

Marcus W. Feldman

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. November 2024

Journal Article | From Partners to Populations: A Hierarchical Bayesian Account of Coordination and Convention

Hawkins, Robert D., Franke, Michael, Frank, Michael C., Goldberg, Adele E., Smith, Kenny, Griffiths, Thomas L., Goodman, Noah D.

Psychological Review. July 2023.

Explore All Institute Research

Culture Initiative Graduate Student Fellowship

The Culture Initiative is launching the Culture Initiative Graduate Student Fellowship, a new award for PhD students whose research focuses on culture.

Award
Each fellowship provides $5,000 to support graduate student research, with an emphasis on data collection efforts. Funds are intended to support the research process (e.g., data collection, including fieldwork, and/or computing resources) but may not be used for conference travel or dissemination purposes. Beyond financial support, the graduate student fellowship also includes a mentoring lunch with faculty from the Culture Initiative, a poster presentation at a Culture Initiative Capstone Event, and other networking events.

Eligibility
The fellowship is open to Stanford PhD students. Applicants’ proposed research should fit within the Culture Initiative’s mandate: advancing fundamental research on culture and translating it into real-world impact.

Application
Applications can be submitted here are due by 11:59 PM on October 14th, 2026. Decisions will be announced in early November 2026.

Culture Events and Opportunities

Explore culture related events and opportunities at Stanford.

Call for Papers: AKSC Annual Conference 2026

September 1, 2026 | Call for Paper

The Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC) invites students, activists, artists, scholars, organizers, writers, and community members to present their work or research papers at the annual conference themed “Democracy & Freedom: Promise vs Practice - How Culture, Law, and AI Control the Narrative,” scheduled for September 26, 2026, at Los Cerritos Community Centre in Fremont, CA, with submissions due by September 1, 2026, at 5:00 PM PST. Participants will explore these questions together through discussion and collective analysis, examining how power works today and how communities can challenge inequality and build a more democratic future.

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Call for Papers: Archival Gaps in the Global Imagination

September 1, 2026 | Call for Papers

The Stanford Department of African and African American Studies invites scholars from across the humanities to submit proposals for “Archival Gaps in the Global Imagination,” a conference examining the limits of historical knowledge and the challenge of recovering the subjective experiences of historically marginalized peoples, scheduled for February 18, 2027, at Stanford University, with submissions due by September 1, 2026. Participants will explore methodologies for approaching histories that have been overlooked, fragmented, erased, or excluded from conventional archives, with select presenters invited to contribute to an edited collection on the conference theme.

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Book Talk: “The Troika: The Troika: A Story of Three Families, Friendship, and the Cold War”

September 15, 2026 | Event

The Hoover Institution Library & Archives is partnering with the International Spy Museum to co-host a hybrid event on “The Troika”, Markus Wolf’s memoir of the Cold War, on Tuesday, September 15th, 2026, from 6:30 PM ET at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

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Theory Today Fall 2026 Lecture Series - The Selfie Machine

September 17, 2026 | Event

Anirban Baishya is an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Politics, & Culture at the Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests lie at the intersection of visual and digital cultures, with a particular emphasis on media aesthetics, ethics and affect.

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Fourth International Workshop on Japanese Diaspora

September 23, 2026 | Event

Drawing on the Hoover Institution Library & Archives’ extensive holdings on Japan, the Nikkei experience, and U.S.–Japan relations, this workshop aims to foster scholarly dialogue across geographic boundaries. Participants will examine the histories of the Japanese diaspora within broader political, economic, social, and military contexts.

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In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir — Book Launch & Discussion with Francis Fukuyama

September 23, 2026 | Event

Join Francis Fukuyama for the launch and discussion of his latest book, In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir.

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Worse than War: The Global Costs of Violence | Jim Fearon

September 25, 2026 | Event

This presentation reflects on the epistemological, theoretical, and methodological challenges of conducting research with minoritized groups, drawing on research centered on collective memory, state and political violence, ideologies, and intergroup relations.

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Chasing Freedom: Coming of Age at the End of Empire - Dr. Simukai chicgudu

September 30, 2026 | Event

Join Dr. Simukai Chigudu for a book talk on Chasing Freedom: a story of being born in postcolonial Zimbabwe, shaped by his family’s buried trauma of war and liberation. It is a moving account of a generation still searching for the freedom they were promised.

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Human-Centered AI for Social Impact

October 7, 2026 | Event

The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford join forces to offer an engaging educational experience that integrates human-centered AI development with human-centered design. The program equips social-sector leaders with tools to create AI-driven solutions that are both innovative and responsible.

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How Americans Enforce the Law

October 15, 2026 | Event

Join the Neukom Center in celebrating Faculty Director Professor Diego Zambrano’s new book, How Americans Enforce the Law.

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Human-Centered Design for Local Government: Shaping Cities with People in Mind

October 22, 2026 | Event

Learn how to apply human-centered design principles to complex challenges and collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders. This three-part series offers practical guidance and actionable strategies for creating meaningful change in your community.

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Worse than War: The Global Costs of Violence | Jim Fearon

October 29, 2026 | Event

Anke Hoeffler and James Fearon examine data on the global prevalence and costs of collective and interpersonal violence. Their research shows that interpersonal violence is significantly more widespread and imposes greater societal costs than collective violence.

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El tiempo no para: memoria y historia para pensar proyectos de futuro en el cono sur

November 13, 2026 | Event

Una presentación sobre el libro El tiempo no para escrito por Aldo Marchesi y Vania Markarian. El libro se propone historizar la idea de derechos humanos., entender el impacto de dicha concepción en el desarrollo de las democracias de finales del siglo XX y en los gobiernos progresistas del siglo XXI, y luego proponer algunas preguntas sobre los limites del lenguaje de los derechos humanos para pensar la crisis contemporánea.

Faculty Co-Directors

Michele Gelfand

The John H. Scully Professor in Cross-Cultural Management and Professor of Organizational Behavior

Amir Goldberg

Amman Mineral Professor of Organizational Behavior

Douglas Guilbeault

Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior

Helena Miton

Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior

Culture Initiative Affiliates

Ran Ambramitzky

Senior Associate Dean for Social Sciences, Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Economics, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Claire Leslie Adida

Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Angele Christin

Associate Professor of Communication

Matthew Clair

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Sara Constantino

Assistant Professor of Environmental Social Sciences

Javier Mejia Cubillos

Lecturer

Johannes Eichstaedt

Assistant Professor (Research) of Psychology

Alice Evans

Senior Lecturer King's College London

Marcel Fafchamps

Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Emeritus

Marcus Feldman

Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor

Vasiliki Fouka

Bing Professor of Human Biology, Associate Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Michael Frank

Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor of Human Biology

Angela Garcia

Roger and Cynthia Lang Professor

MarYam Hamedani

Executive Director & Senior Research Scientist

Robert Hawkins

Assistant Professor of Linguistics

James Holland Jones

Professor of Environmental Social Sciences

David Laitin

James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor

Tayna Luhrmann

Albert Ray Lang Professor

Hazel Markus

Davis-Brack Professor of the Behavioral Sciences

Daniel Anthony McFarland

Professor of Education

Charles O’Reilly

The Frank E. Buck Professor of Management

Hesham Sallam

Senior Research Scholar

Paola Sapienza

Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution

Alain Schlaepfer

Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law

Jeanne Tsai

Dunlevie Family Professor

Alessandra Voena

Holbrook Working Professor of Price Theory, Department of Economics

Robb Willer

Professor of Sociology

Diyi Yang

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

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