Sarah Soule

Sarah A. Soule is an American sociologist who is the Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior and director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. She is known for her work on organizational behavior, social movements, political sociology, and policy change and diffusion.

Education and career
Soule studied Sociology and Political Science at the University of Vermont, receiving her B.A. in 1989. She completed both her M.A. in Sociology in 1991 and Ph.D. in Sociology in 1995 at Cornell University. She started her professional academic career at the University of Arizona in 1995, and was promoted to professor by 2005. After briefly working at Cornell University, she started as a professor at Stanford University in 2008. In 2009 she was promoted to the position of Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior, and 2016 she was named senior associate dean for academic affairs at Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2023 she was named director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.

Research
Soule's research focuses on organizational behavior, social movements, political sociology, and policy change and diffusion. Her book, Contention and Corporate Social Responsibility, looks at the role of social movements and activism in corporate action and social accountability. She has spoken about the increase in politics in the workspace in the United States, and establishing a business program designed to increase the presence of LGBT people in business leadership.