The way that the concept of culture has been used in the higher education literature to account for certain aspects of faculty life is examined. Culture is defined as the collective, mutually shaping patterns of norms, values, practices, beliefs, and assumptions that guide the behavior of individual faculty and groups and provide a frame of reference within which to interpret the meaning of events and actions on and off the campus. Attention is also directed to uses of the concept of subculture to describe faculty groups. Research on faculty subcultures has been influenced by two dominant views: (1) academics comprise a single homogenous profession, characterized more by similarities than differences; and (2) the academic profession is a complex of subprofessions or many professions. Enclaves within subcultures, including disciplinary subspecialties, are considered, along with the question of whether women faculty, ethnic and racial minority faculty, and part-time faculty comprise subcultures. Finally, clans and occupational communities are discussed. It is concluded that the role of institutional and disciplinary culture in the socialization processes of faculty is essentially undocumented. Fifteen pages of references are provided. (SW)