CASBS Directors - Bios
Margaret Levi |Iris F. Litt | Stephen M. Kosslyn | Claude M. Steele | Doug McAdam |Neil J. Smelser | Philip E. Converse | Gardner Lindzey | O. Meredith Wilson | Ralph W. Tyler
Margaret Levi is the Sara Miller McCune Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford and Professor of Political Science, Stanford University, and Jere L. Bacharach Professor Emerita of International Studies in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. She became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in 2002, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2015. She served as president of the American Political Science Association from 2004 to 2005. In 2014 she received the William H. Riker Prize in Political Science.
She earned her BA from Bryn Mawr College in 1968 and her PhD from Harvard University in 1974, the year she joined the faculty of the University of Washington. She has been a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University. She held the Chair in Politics, United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, 2009-13 and is currently an Affiliate Professor there. At the University of Washington she was director of the CHAOS (Comparative Historical Analysis of Organizations and States) Center and formerly the Harry Bridges Chair and Director of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies.
Levi is the author or coauthor of numerous articles and seven books, including Of Rule and Revenue (University of California Press, 1988); Consent, Dissent, and Patriotism (Cambridge University Press, 1997); Analytic Narratives (Princeton University Press, 1998); and Cooperation Without Trust? (Russell Sage, 2005). In the Interest of Others (Princeton, 2013), co-authored with John Ahlquist, explores how organizations provoke member willingness to act beyond material interest. In other work, she investigates the conditions under which people come to believe their governments are legitimate and the consequences of those beliefs for compliance, consent, and the rule of law. Her research continues to focus on how to improve the quality of government. She is also committed to understanding and improving supply chains so that the goods we consume are produced in a manner that sustains both the workers and the environment. In 2015 she published the co-authored Labor Standards in International Supply Chains (Edward Elgar).
She was general editor of Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics and is co-general editor of the Annual Review of Political Science. Levi serves on the boards of the: Social Science Research Council (SSRC); Institute For Advanced Study; Center for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (CEACS) in Madrid; Scholar and Research Group of the World Justice Project, and Berggruen Institutes Board. Levi and her husband, Robert Kaplan, are avid collectors of Australian Aboriginal art. Ancestral Modern, an exhibition drawn from their collection, was on view at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) in 2012. Yale University Press and SAM co-published the catalogue.Her fellowships include the Woodrow Wilson in 1968, German Marshall in 1988-9, and the Center for Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences in 1993-1994. She has lectured and been a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, the European University Institute, the Max Planck Institute in Cologne, the Juan March Institute, the Budapest Collegium, Cardiff University, Oxford University, Bergen University, and Peking University.
Back to top
The first female and first MD Director of the Center, Iris Litt is best known as a founder of the field of Adolescent Medicine and her efforts on behalf of improving the health care of prisoners and juvenile detainees.
At Stanford University since 1976, she directed its Division of Adolescent Medicine and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (now the Clayman Center on Gender Research).
A CASBS Fellow from 1984-85, she has published numerous papers about women’s health, health and health behaviors of adolescents, and eating disorders.
A native of New York, she earned her B.A from Cornell University and her MD from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center.
She was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Adolescent Health, President of the Society for Adolescent Medicine and was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1988.
Back to top
A neuroscientist known for his research on mental imagery and visual perception and communication, Stephen M. Kosslyn has taught at Johns Hopkins University, Brandeis University, and Harvard University. At Harvard, he was one of the youngest people to be granted a full professor position in his department, later serving as its Dean. He earned his PhD at Stanford University.
During his directorship at the Center, Kosslyn launched the Behavioral Sciences Summit, covering topics as varied as behavioral economics, organizational behavior, creativity, and innovation.
A Guggenheim Fellow, he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and 13 books; currently he is at work co-editing an online reference, Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, to be published by SAGE Publications in 2015. He is dean of Minerva University in San Francisco.
He is co-founder of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience; he holds patents in neuroimaging and data presentation.
Back to top
Recognized as a leader in social psychology, Claude M. Steele was a CASBS Fellow in the class of 1995 and is highly regarded for his work on stereotype threat, an experience of anxiety or worry about confirming negative stereotypes of one’s social group. During his time as Director, he worked on the acclaimed book, Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us. Part of the Tyler Collection at CASBS, the book addresses addressing minority underperformance in higher education.
Born in Phoenix, Illinois, he earned his PhD at Ohio State University. He has taught at the University of Utah, University of Washington, and University of Michigan. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Education.
Read more about Claude M. Steele.
Watch a Columbia University lecture by Claude M. Steele on the topic of stereotype threat (nb: lecture starts at 8:53).
Back to top
When Doug McAdam was appointed Director, he already had a close connection with the Center: in 1992 and 1998 he was a Fellow in sociology, where his research included work toward his book, Dynamics of Contention, part of the Center’s Tyler Collection. He co-directed summer institutes in 1994 and 2000.
A professor in sociology and the Director of Urban Studies at Stanford University, McAdam is the author of numerous books and papers in political sociology, in particular, on the topic of social movements and revolutions.
He earned his PhD at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and was on the faculty at the University of Arizona. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He is currently working on a book whose working title is How Did We Get Into This Mess? The Role of Race, Region, and Social Movements in Today’s Divided America. It is scheduled to be published by Oxford University Press in late 2014.
Back to top
A psychoanalyst and sociologist, Neil J. Smelser is lauded for his work on sociological theory as applied to economic institutions, collective behavior, social change, and personality.
The author of more than a dozen books, his most recent is The Odyssey Experience: Physical, Social, Psychological, and Spiritual Journeys. He describes it as a ‘general study of taking leave from your daily circumstances and getting involved in something special,’ including sabbaticals such as CASBS.
A Rhodes scholar at the University of Oxford, he earned his PhD from Harvard University. He was a professor in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and is now a university professor emeritus of sociology. He has served on numerous national sociological organizations and was president of the American Sociological Association.
Born on his grandparents’ farm in Missouri, his family relocated to Phoenix when he was only six weeks old. Both his parents were educators: his father taught speech, drama, and philosophy at Phoenix Junior College; his mother, Latin and English in high school.
Watch Neil Smelser discuss his intellectual odyssey.
Back to top
A political scientist with degrees in English, sociology, and social psychology, Philip E. Converse was a CASBS Fellow in 1980. The American Voter, a book he co-wrote in 1960, is considered a groundbreaking work in shaping how we view political behavior: one of its primary, and controversial, themes was the assertion that most voters do not think in a sophisticated way about voting.
In this and other studies, he concludes that most American voters profess no clear ideology. And most voters don’t seek much information about an issue unless they believe it has a clear and immediate impact on their own lives.
Converse was born in Concord, New Hampshire, and earned his PhD from the University of Michigan, where he is now a professor emeritus. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Science, and the American Philosophical Society.
Read this appreciation from the University of Michigan.
Explore an overview of some of his papers and a more detailed biography.
Back to top
The longest-serving Director at CASBS, Gardner Lindzey was a Fellow in 1954, its second class, and returned as a Fellow twice in the next two decades (1964 and 1972). He is best known for editing The Handbook of Social Psychology, which remains in widespread use as a reference by graduate students and professionals. He began the project directly out of graduate school, and continued to edit subsequent editions for the next 50 years.
He was often selected for advisory committees addressing important social and psychological issues, including a National Academy of Sciences panel studying the effects of federal drug laws.
He served as President of the American Psychological Association, and was a member of the American Academy Arts and Sciences, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
He was born in Wilmington, Delaware, and earned his PhD from Harvard University. He taught at Harvard University, Syracuse University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas, where he later became Vice President for Academic Affairs.
The Handbook of Social Psychology
Back to top
Joining CASBS as Director marked a role change for Owen Meredith Wilson, but he was not new to the Center: he had served on the Board of Trustees since 1961. Immediately before taking on the directorship, Wilson served as President of the University of Minnesota, and prior to that as President of the University of Oregon, where he created its Institute of Molecular Biology.
He served on the advisory committee of the Agency for International Development (AID), and was appointed to President Lyndon Johnson’s advisory committee on labor management policy; after retiring from CASBS, he was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. The Wilson Library at the University of Minnesota includes important collections in the humanities and social sciences, as well as rare books.
Born in Mexico and raised in Utah, he earned his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught history at Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and the University of Chicago.
Read more about O. Meredith Wilson
Read an overview of his papers, including many from his tenure at CASBS,
Back to top
The first Director of the Center, Ralph W. Tyler is considered one of the most influential educators of the 20th century. His assertion that learning is a process by which a student attains new patterns of behavior affects and informs education even today. His seminal Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, first published in 1949, continues to be sold worldwide.
A native of Chicago, he grew up in Nebraska and earned his PhD at the University of Chicago, where he later served as Chairman of the Department of Education and the Dean of Social Sciences. An advisor to seven U.S. presidents, he was a founding member and President of the National Academy of Education.
His portrait, taken by a young Ansel Adams, overlooks the Tyler Collection in the Center’s library.
Read more about Ralph W. Tyler in Educating America by Morris Finder, one of Tyler’s students at the University of Chicago. It is part of the Tyler Collection at CASBS.
Read more about Ralph W. Tyler.
Back to top