The Foundation for Psychocultural Research (FPR) was founded in December 1999 with a gift from Robert Lemelson, a documentary filmmaker and psychological anthropologist on the UCLA faculty.
The FPR supports and advances interdisciplinary and integrative research and training on interactions of culture, neuroscience, psychiatry, and psychology, with an emphasis on cultural processes as central.
Our primary objective is to help articulate and support the creation of transformative paradigms that address issues of fundamental clinical and social concern.
The Foundation for Psychocultural Research funded the following activities at the University of California, Los Angeles, College of Social Sciences:
- Lemelson Anthropology Honors Scholarship Program – Year 4 Extension (2024-2025). PI: Jason Throop, PhD, Professor, Department of Anthropology, UCLA
- Mind, Medicine, and Culture (MMAC) Working Group – Endowment Fund Year 4 (2025). co-PIs: Jason Throop and Douglas Hollan, PhD, Professor, Department of Anthropology, UCLA
- Behavior, Evolution and Culture – BEC Speaker Series (2024). PI: Clark Barrett, PhD, Professor, Department of Anthropology, UCLA
- Amazigh Studies Program, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Culture – Amazigh Studies Program Fund (2024). PI: Aomar Boum, Professor and Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
In addition, the FPR funded a capacity-building workshop at the Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia (UAJ) – Konsorsium Psikokultural Indonesia (2023-2024)
2023–2024
The Foundation for Psychocultural Research funded the following activities at the University of California, Los Angeles, College of Social Sciences:
- Lemelson Anthropology Honors Scholarship Program – Year 3 Extension (2023-2024). PI: Jason Throop, PhD, Professor, Department of Anthropology, UCLA
- Mind, Medicine, and Culture (MMAC) Working Group – Endowment Fund Year 3 (2024). co-PIs: Jason Throop and Douglas Hollan, PhD, Professor, Department of Anthropology, UCLA
In addition, the FPR provided support for the final year of two outstanding grants originally extended under the auspices of the Culture, Mind, and Brain Research Network (including zoom meetings, workshop presentations, and publications).
- A Critical Moment: Sex/Gender Research at the Intersections of Culture, Brain, and Behavior
October 23-24, 2015 - Culture, Mind, and Brain: Emerging Concepts, Methods, Applications
October 19–20, 2012 - Cultural and Biological Contexts of Psychiatric Disorder: Implications for Diagnosis and Treatment
January 22–24, 2010 - Critical Neuroscience: Challenging Reductionism in Psychiatry and Social Neuroscience
(co-sponsored by UCLA, McGill University, and Neuroscience in Context)
January 30, 2009 - Seven Dimensions of Emotion
March 30–April 1, 2007 - Four Dimensions of Childhood: Brain, Mind, Culture, and Time
February 11–13, 2005 - Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Approaches to Trauma’s Effects
December 13–15, 2002