Julia Burdick-Will

Assistant Professor of Sociology & Education, Johns Hopkins University

Julia Burdick-Will is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University.

Academic background

Julia Burdick-Will received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where she was an Institute for Education Sciences Predoctoral Fellow, and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University. Her research combines the sociology of education and urban sociology to study the roots of educational inequality and examine the dynamic connections between communities and schools that shape opportunities to learn. She has studied the effects of concentrated neighborhood poverty on cognitive development, the geography of elementary school openings and closings, and the impact of neighborhood and school violence on student test scores, attendance, school mobility, and high school enrollment patterns. Her current projects focus on metropolitan level patterns of school mobility and segregation, as well as the effect of difficult student commutes on tardiness and transfer.

Research Projects: Baltimore Schools Regional Mobility Study, Investigating Youth Commuting to School

Favorite Thing to Do in Baltimore: Chesapeake & Allegheny Live Steamers (Leakin Park train rides)

Honors

2014 James Coleman Award for the best article in the Sociology of Education from the American Sociological Association

CV

Burdick-Will CV.pdf

Websites

Teaching

230.109 Freshman Seminar: Hot Topics in Education

230.312 Education & Society

230.322 Quantitative Research Practicum

230.604 Linear Models

855.755 How Schools Work

Contact information

Office: Mergenthaler Hall 437
Email: jburdickwill@jhu.edu
Office Phone: 410-516-7633

Recent publications

Burdick-Will, Julia, Kiara M. Nerenberg, Jeffrey A. Grigg, & Faith Connolly. 2020. “Student mobility and violent crime exposure at Baltimore City public elementary schools.” American Educational Research Journal. Forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831220963908.

Burdick-Will, Julia, Jeffrey A. Grigg, Kiara M. Nerenberg, and Faith Connolly. 2020. “Socially Structured Mobility Networks and School Segregation Dynamics: The Role of Emergent Consideration Sets.” American Sociological Review 85(4): 675-708. DOI: 10.1177/0003122420934739
Open access link: https://osf.io/es5dx/download

Burdick-Will, Julia, Marc L. Stein, and Jeffrey Grigg. 2019. “Danger on the Way to School: Exposure to Violent Crime, Public Transportation, and Absenteeism.” Sociological Science 6(1): 118-142.

Burdick-Will, Julia. 2018. “Neighborhood Violence, Peer-Effects, and Academic Achievement in Chicago.” Sociology of Education 91(3).

Burdick-Will, Julia. 2018. “School Location, Social Ties, and Neighborhood Perception.” City & Community 17(2).

Burdick-Will, Julia. 2017. “Neighbors, But Not Classmates: Neighborhood Disadvantage, Local Violent Crime, and the Heterogeneity of Educational Experiences in Chicago.” American Journal of Education 124(1).

Burdick-Will, Julia. 2016. “Neighborhood Violent Crime and Academic Growth in Chicago: Lasting Effects of Early Exposure.” Social Forces 95(1): 133-157.

Burdick-Will, Julia. 2013. “School Violent Crime and Academic Achievement in Chicago.” Sociology of Education 86(4).

In the Media

A High-Crime Neighborhood Makes It Harder To Show Up For School
NPR. February 13, 2019

Hopkins study: Baltimore students who commute through crime-ridden neighborhoods more likely to miss school
Baltimore Sun. February 13, 2019

Want Students to Attend School Every Day? Make Sure They Feel Safe on the Way
Education Week. February 13, 2019

What happens when schoolchildren live in violent neighborhoods? The effects are broader than previously known, a study finds.
The Washington Post. July 3, 2018.

Study Shows ‘Collateral Damage’ Tied to Neighborhood Violence
US News & World Reports. June 12, 2018.

When It Comes to School Choices, It’s a Privilege to Have Fewer
CityLab. September 21, 2015.