About the Center

The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford (CASBS) is dedicated to advancing knowledge about human behavior and fostering contributions to society. We do this through several programs, and primarily our residential fellowships. Other programs are special projects within the residential year, extended seminars involving groups of scholars who meet at the Center over two to three years, and summer institutes. For all these programs, we identify the most accomplished and promising scholars in the fields represented by the Center.

Our aspiration for CASBS programs is that they will advance knowledge, advance fields of humanities and the social and behavioral sciences, and contribute to society. We believe that groups of scholars gathered together at the Center, will stimulate each other to broaden and deepen their thinking. The specific methods of CASBS are the social interactive process of interdisciplinary stimulation, intellectual freedom and time, and staff support. Our experience is that these social structures in the "microenvironment" permit Fellows to engage new and challenging ideas, to think clearly and analytically, and to write more profoundly and prolifically than at any other time in their careers. Young scholars especially benefit from this environment and build their fields in a way influenced by their experience at the Center. 

Looking Ahead 

From our inception in 1954, the Center has maintained an unwavering commitment to a single mission: To advance knowledge in the social and behavioral sciences. Our founding document declares that “the critical problems of our contemporary society make clear the great need for knowledge of the principles that govern behavior.” We believe that this quest for knowledge to improve society is as timely and compelling today as it was 50 years ago.

As we look to the next 50 years, we will preserve these essential components of the Center experience. We are committed to two additional goals as well.

First, through a special initiative, we will bring an increasing number of the most promising younger scholars to the Center immediately after tenure. We believe that the interdisciplinary stimulation will broaden their research interests and inspire them to undertake long-term scholarship that will lead to a greater understanding of the issues we face today.

Second, in light of pressing contemporary concerns, we are currently devising a program to promote scholarship on a wide range of real-world issues. We will partner with funders to award more fellowships to first-rate scholars working on projects such as “Employment Discrimination,” “Mass Killing and Ethnic Violence,” and “At-risk Adolescents in a Globalizing World.” This initiative is not designed to promote narrow, applied work, but to stimulate innovative scholarship on issues that are shaping our world.

True interdisciplinary collaboration, explicit encouragement to undertake risk-taking scholarship, investment in promising young scholars, and group projects on contemporary issues—as we look to our next 50 years, these will be the hallmarks of the Center.