The Gustafson Seminar is an interdisciplinary seminar which attempts to embody the ideals of the university by engaging topics of interest to a wide variety of scholars and scientists. Recent topics have included "Negotiating the Fourth Dimension: Time-Universe-University," "Scholarship, Entrepreneurship, and the Corporatization of the Academy" and "Creativity, Publicity, and the Fate of Scholarly Writing."

The Seminar grew out of the annual Luce Seminars that were held at Emory from 1989 to 1996 under the direction of James M. Gustafson. In 1997, the Office of the Provost assumed sponsorship of the Seminar, which was renamed in honor of Professor Gustafson when he retired in the spring of 1998.

The Gustafson Seminar is organized and convened by three Gustafson Scholars chosen from the Emory faculty. It provides participants—roughly a dozen faculty members selected from a pool of applicants responding to a university-wide call—the opportunity to meet with colleagues from across Emory University to engage cross-cutting topics of interest. In addition to the Seminar itself, the Gustafson Seminar has sponsored public lecturers by invited scholars such as Stanley Fish and Douglas R. Hofstadter.