Stanley's research interests centre on the biocultural ecology of human populations past and present, and nutritional anthropology.

He is particularly interested in understanding patterns of human growth and development as markers of well-being, the relationships between nutrition, disease and reproduction in tropical seasonal environments, and the effects of economic change on nutritional health.

He has carried out research in India, Nepal, Sarawak, Bangladesh and the Cook Islands, and maintains ongoing research in Papua New Guinea and Poland.

He is Director of the Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity (UBVO); Director of the Institute Social and Cultural Anthropology; and Vice-Master of St Cross College Oxford.