Overhead scene of the SLI at Stanford
Overhead scene of the SLI at Stanford
Overhead scene of the SLI at Stanford
Understanding Cultural Impact

Culture Initiative of 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 ArticleMigration 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 and 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 | 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 Culture Events

Our event calendar is in development. Check back soon.

Faculty Co-Directors

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

Culture Initiative Affiliates

Senior Associate Dean for Social Sciences, Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Economics, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Associate Professor of Communication
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Assistant Professor of Environmental Social Sciences
Assistant Professor (Research) of Psychology
Senior Lecturer King's College London
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Emeritus
Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor
Bing Professor of Human Biology, Associate Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor of Human Biology
Roger and Cynthia Lang Professor
Executive Director & Senior Research Scientist
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Professor of Environmental Social Sciences
James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor
Albert Ray Lang Professor
Davis-Brack Professor of the Behavioral Sciences
Professor of Education
The Frank E. Buck Professor of Management
Senior Research Scholar
Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law
Dunlevie Family Professor
Holbrook Working Professor of Price Theory, Department of Economics
Professor of Sociology
Assistant Professor of Computer Science

News from the Institute

School Stories & News Opensearch
April 16, 2026
Written

Huang and Khanna: Global Talent, Smart Rules, and Reindustrialization Can Keep the U.S. Ahead in AI

NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Congressman Ro Khanna met at Stanford to discuss U.S. AI leadership and requirements for continued success.
Photo of H.R. McMasters speaking with Jensen Huang and Ro Khanna on stage
February 04, 2026
Written

Scholars Discuss the Promises and Challenges of Decentralized Governance

At a Hoover Institution conference, Stanford GSB professors explored the governance of American universities and decentralized autonomous organizations.
January 05, 2026
Written

AI Is Transforming How Brands Connect With Their Audiences

GSB conference explores AI-driven opportunities for better personalization, as well as risks.

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