# Culture ## expand\_more ![Floating market, Bangkok, Thailand](/sites/g/files/omnuum1481/files/sociology/files/rsz_1culture_cluster_photo.jpg) The interest in studying culture empirically has been growing dramatically within the discipline, and Harvard has emerged as a leading center for cultural sociology. In their respective work, faculty are concerned with interpretation, explanation, research design, and methodology. To gain purchase on the production and reproduction of social processes in which meaning-making is central and where culture is both causal agent and adaptive force, we study a wide range of practices and institutions, including racial identity, poverty and inequality, collective memory, symbolic boundaries, cultural capital, class culture, disciplinary cultures, evaluation, nationalism, colonialism, economic change, slavery, trafficking, freedom, popular and black youth cultures, sports, transnationalism, networks, and cognition. Our theoretical orientations are diverse and inclusive, ranging from pragmatist views of culture as dynamic and contextual practices to structural notions of culture as durable norms and values. The department sponsors the [Cultural and Social Analysis Workshop](http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k25441). [Affiliated Graduate Students](/people/graduate-student-research-clusters/culture) ## Associated Faculty [### Lawrence D. Bobo ](/people/lawrence-d-bobo) [### Christina Ciocca Eller ](/people/christina-ciocca-eller) [### Caitlin Daniel ](/people/caitlin-daniel-2) [### Emily Fairchild ](/people/emily-fairchild) [### Sarah Halford ](/people/sarah-halford) [### Isabel Jijon ](/people/isabel-jijon) [### Michèle Lamont ](/people/michele-lamont) [### Ya-Wen Lei ](/people/yawen-lei) [### Ellis Monk ](/people/ellis-monk) [### Orlando Patterson ](/people/orlando-patterson) [### Eun Kyong Shin ](/people/eun-kyong-shin) [### Johnny Smith ](/people/johnny-smith) [### Christopher Winship ](/people/christopher-winship) ## News related to Culture [### Symposium on Patterson's Paradox of Freedom Published ](/news/2026/06/symposium-pattersons-paradox-freedom-published) June 15, 2026 The European Journal of Sociology has published the remarks delivered at a panel discussion on the life and work of Stone Program faculty affiliate Orlando Patterson, the John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. This event took place at... ![Orlando Patterson](/sites/g/files/omnuum1481/files/styles/hwp_scale_small/public/2025-09/Orlando%20Patterson%20-%20Photo%20for%20Website.jpg.jpeg?itok=P3soM6JC) [### Ellis Monk awarded ASA Theory Section Award ](/news/2026/06/ellis-monk-awarded-asa-theory-section-award) June 08, 2026 American Sociology Association's Theory Section’s Lewis A Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda-Setting awarded to Professor Ellis Monk. Please see more about the award here . ![Ellis Monk](/sites/g/files/omnuum1481/files/styles/hwp_scale_small/public/2022-11-22_Dr.-Ellis-Monk_Harvard-University-002-2048x1152.jpg?itok=JAdEggaa) [### The Monk Skin Tone Scale now held in permanent collection of UK museum ](/news/2026/06/monk-skin-tone-scale-now-held-permanent-collection-uk-museum) June 02, 2026 Learn more about the Monk Skin Tone Scale, and the display at National Science and Media Museum Sound and Vision galleries. ![Monk skin tone museum display](/sites/g/files/omnuum1481/files/styles/hwp_scale_small/public/2026-06/monk%20scale_museum.jpeg?itok=rAgBrnYj) [### 2026 Sociology Undergraduate Thesis Prizes and Academic Awards ](/news/2026/05/2026-sociology-undergraduate-thesis-prizes-and-academic-awards) May 26, 2026 The department would like to congratulate the following students for their outstanding thesis work and academic achievements during the 2026 academic year: Fulton Prize Each year the Albert M. Fulton, Class of 1897, Prize is presented to the senior who... description [### 2026 Sociology Undergraduate Thesis Prizes and Academic Awards ](/news/2026/05/2026-sociology-undergraduate-thesis-prizes-and-academic-awards-0) May 26, 2026 Students receive Fulton, Hoopes, Cummings, and Rose prizes for outstanding thesis work; Five students inducted to Phi Beta Kappa; Three students accepted to American Sociological Association 2026 Honors Program. Read more here. description ## Related Publications Download 21 citations download- [BibTeX](/bibcite/export?pager_style=show_more&number_of_items=3&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_country%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_featuredpublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_researchclusters%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=1201&&&format=bibtex) - [EndNote X3 XML](/bibcite/export?pager_style=show_more&number_of_items=3&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_country%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_featuredpublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_researchclusters%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=1201&&&format=endnote8) - [EndNote 7 XML](/bibcite/export?pager_style=show_more&number_of_items=3&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_country%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_featuredpublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_researchclusters%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=1201&&&format=endnote7) - [Endnote tagged](/bibcite/export?pager_style=show_more&number_of_items=3&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_country%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_featuredpublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_researchclusters%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=1201&&&format=tagged) - [Marc](/bibcite/export?pager_style=show_more&number_of_items=3&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_country%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_featuredpublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_researchclusters%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=1201&&&format=marc) - [PubMedId](/bibcite/export?pager_style=show_more&number_of_items=3&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_country%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_featuredpublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_researchclusters%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=1201&&&format=pubmed_id) - [RIS](/bibcite/export?pager_style=show_more&number_of_items=3&sort_field=bibcite_year--desc&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_country%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_featuredpublications%5D&taxonomy_filters%5Bfield_hwp_c_researchclusters%5D%5B0%5D%5Btarget_id%5D=1201&&&format=ris) Patterson, O. (2019). *[The Confounding Island: Institutions, Culture and Mis-development in Post-Colonial Jamaica](/publications/confounding-island-institutions-culture-and-mis-development-post-colonial)*. Harvard University Press. Patterson, O. (2019). *[The Confounding Island: Institutions, Culture and Mis-development in Post-Colonial Jamaica](/publications/confounding-island-institutions-culture-and-mis-development-post-colonial)*. Harvard University Press. Winship, C., Staubmann, H., & Lidz, V. (2018). [Inchoate Situations and Extra-Rational Behavior](/publications/inchoate-situations-and-extra-rational-behavior). In *Rationality in the Social Sciences* (pp. 223-243). Springer International Publishing. Winship, C., Staubmann, H., & Lidz, V. (2018). [Inchoate Situations and Extra-Rational Behavior](/publications/inchoate-situations-and-extra-rational-behavior). In *Rationality in the Social Sciences* (pp. 223-243). Springer International Publishing. Lamont, M., Adler, L., Park, B. Y., & Xiang, X. (2017). [Bridging Cultural Sociology and Cognitive Psychology in Three Contemporary Research Programs](/publications/bridging-cultural-sociology-and-cognitive-psychology-three-contemporary). *Nature Human Behaviour*, *2017*, 866-872. Lamont, M., Adler, L., Park, B. Y., & Xiang, X. (2017). [Bridging Cultural Sociology and Cognitive Psychology in Three Contemporary Research Programs](/publications/bridging-cultural-sociology-and-cognitive-psychology-three-contemporary). *Nature Human Behaviour*, *2017*, 866-872. Show morerefresh