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 Events and Opportunities

Explore culture related events and opportunities at Stanford.

The Social Life of Islam: Exploring Intellectual Exchange and Community Well-Being in West Africa

October 21, 2026 | Event

Join the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies and the Markaz Resource Center for a conversation with Dr. Thiago Mota, Assistant Professor of African History at UC Santa Cruz. Our conversation will explore the globalization of Islam across the African continent, with a particular focus on the religion’s social spread throughout West Africa.

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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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The Human Factor: Work as Science in Modern China

October 22, 2026 | Event

Modern industry has never depended on machines alone. It has also relied on workers who could read uncertain signals, coordinate hand and eye motions, and adapt to changing conditions, all in the interest of keeping production moving. This talk traces how Chinese psychologists made that “human factor” an object of scientific study across the twentieth century its changing political regimes.

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Universal Human Psychology, “Bani Adam,” and Our Omnicultural Future

October 22, 2026 | Event

The policy of omniculturalism is described as a constructive way forward for humanity, and the empirical psychological evidence in support of this policy is critically assessed.

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CBD 2026: What AI Can’t Do (Yet) — And Why: The Everyday Role of Creative Leaps in Human Learning

October 23, 2026 | Event

Today’s AI systems learn through processes of brute-force statistical optimization that require orders of magnitude more data and compute than any person, and yet the concepts that AI systems develop remain surprisingly brittle and inflexible. By comparison, humans routinely achieve deep and robust understanding from remarkably little, given the pervasive constraints they face on memory, attention, and information access. Drawing on new research showing that a simple threshold rule governs how people learn everything from grammar to social conventions, this keynote argues that human learning is distinguished not by gradual optimization but by creative, categorical transitions: sudden leaps across semantic space from disordered, random exploration to stable conceptual insights.

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Constructing Utopias: China’s New Town Movement in the 21st Century

October 26, 2026 | Event

This talk examines four decades of Chinese urbanization through the lens of urbanism and utopianism. Case studies—including the Suzhou Industrial Park, Shanghai’s One City and Nine Towns, and prototypical eco-cities—illuminate fundamental issues of economic vitality, cultural identity, environmental sustainability, and socio-spatial dynamics. Ultimately, the talk explores the complex interplay between space production and social transformation within the context of neoliberalism and globalization.

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Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult

October 26, 2026 | Event

The Northeast Asia History Working Group of the Hoover History Lab invites you to attend Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult on October 26, 2026 from 4:30-6:30 pm PT in the Shultz Auditorium, George P. Shultz Building.

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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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Witness to Iran’s Paradigm Shift: From Flight PS752 to Woman, Life, Freedom and Beyond

October 29, 2026 | Event

In this lecture, Babak Payami argues that the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising was not simply another episode in Iran’s long struggle for freedom. It marked the collapse of a political dialogue with power sustained for decades by repression, ideological rivalry, and the recurring illusion of reform.

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How Surprising Neighborhood Changes Are Bringing Down Black-White Segregation

October 29, 2026 | Event

The Program on Urban Studies, with the Department of Sociology, welcomes the Stanford community to the 20th annual Model Scholar lecture featuring John R. Logan.

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Documentary Objectives: Filming Africa from Colonialism to Independence - Rachel Gabara

November 5, 2026 | Event

This session will highlight the nearly forgotten innovations of the decades following independence to demonstrate how, in a complex network of images and languages and across a dynamic range of modes, African documentarists remade a global art form rooted in oppression, exoticization, and a simplistic conception of filmic realism.

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The Fate of the Social in Modern Life: American Social Scientists and Japan as Archive

November 5, 2026 | Event

This talk examines how postwar scholars treated Japan not simply as an object of study but as a site for thinking through a larger problem in modern social thought: the relationship between individual freedom and social solidarity.

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Stanford Culture Initiative Talk

November 5, 2026 | Event

Paola Sapienza will be speaking on “The Progressive Campus: Political Trends Among American College Students” (work with Paola Giuliano). The talk will be followed by a light evening reception.

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Relational Intelligence (RQ): Building Relational Futures in the Age of AI

November 10, 2026 | Event

As AI reshapes how we learn, work, and connect, understanding and strengthening human relationships has become an urgent scientific and societal priority. This session invites researchers across disciplines to explore Relational Intelligence (RQ), our capacity to build trust, cultivate belonging, navigate differences, and form meaningful connections. Together, we will examine emerging scientific questions, identify opportunities for interdisciplinary research, and imagine new ways to measure, develop, and strengthen relational capacities. How might we build a future in which advances in artificial intelligence are matched by advances in human connection?

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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.

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Colloquium Event with Rosalind Morris

November 16, 2026 | Event

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Symposium on Rural Life and Institutions

November 17, 2026 | Event

Rural America encompasses diverse communities and experiences, shaped by a wide range of political, economic, social, and environmental forces. The symposium will bring together Stanford students, faculty, staff, and partners whose research and work engage with rural communities across the United States, highlighting perspectives on rural politics, economics, education, community health, culture, the environment, and community resilience.

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Racism against East Europeans in Germany: History and Present

November 19, 2026 | Event

Racism against East Europeans constitutes a major gap in racism research and anti-racism debates. Yet there is a long tradition of treating the region and its inhabitants as inferior, with devastating consequences throughout history. This book is the first comprehensive study of racism in the entangled histories of Germany and Eastern Europe—a racism that is not based on skin color and affects people despite their mostly phenotypical whiteness.

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Political Theory Workshop: Joseph Prud’homme

November 20, 2026 | Event

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Angèle Christin & Hannah Zeavin | Gurus, Hucksters, Entertainers: How Influencers Reshaped Social Media

December 9, 2026 | Event

Please join us for an illuminating investigation of the complex work of social media content creators—their lives, conflicts, and controversies.

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

Madalina Vlasceanu

Assistant Professor of Environmental Social Sciences

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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