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Walter W. Powell
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Walter W. Powell

SOCIOLOGY
Stanford University

Fellowship year

2009 - Stanford University - Study 12
1987 - Yale University - Study 40

Faculty Fellow year

2024 - Stanford University - Study 13
2022 - Stanford University
2021 - Stanford University
2020 - Stanford University
2019 - Stanford University - Study 2
2018 - Stanford University

Research Affiliate year

2017 - Stanford University

Woody Powell is Jacks Family Professor of Education, and (by courtesy) Professor of Sociology, Organizational Behavior, Management Science and Engineering, and Communication at Stanford University. He has been faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society since its founding in 2006. At PACS, he leads the Civic Life of Cities Lab, studying civic life in the SF Bay Area, Seattle, Shenzhen, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, and Vienna. He is also an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He has received honorary degrees from Uppsala University, Copenhagen Business School, and Aalto University, and is an international member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Science and The British Academy. With Bob Gibbons (MIT), he has led the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) summer institute on Organizations and their Effectiveness since 2016. He was a fellow at CASBS in 1986-87 and 2008-09, and Interim Director in 2022-23. He works on questions of emergence, e.g., where does novelty come from, and historical persistence, e.g. why are some things sticky. 

Contact

(650) 736-0104