Julie J. Park is Professor of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research addresses racial equity in higher education, addressing the campus racial climate and college admissions. She also studies the complex ways that Asian Americans experience structural advantage and/or disadvantage in the realm of education. Her book Race on Campus: Debunking Myths with Data (Harvard Education Press, 2018), winner of an AESA Critics Choice Award, tackles misconceptions about how race and diversity work in college admissions and campus life. She is also the author of When Diversity Drops: Race, Religion, and Affirmative Action in Higher Education (Rutgers University Press, 2013), an ethnographic examination of how a campus religious community was affected over time by Proposition 209, California's ban on race-conscious admissions. She is currently working on a third book on college admissions following the Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
Her work with the College Admissions Futures Co-Laborative examining the impact of test-optional policies and future of college admissions is currently funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is also Principal Investigator on the study "Race, Religion, and STEM: Exploring the Intersections for Black Students," funded by the National Science Foundation. Her work has appeared in journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Higher Education, and the Review of Higher Education. Her commentary has also appeared in venues like the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. She served as a consulting expert in the landmark lawsuit Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard on the side of Harvard. She earned her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA (Higher Education and Organizational Change), with a graduate concentration in Asian American Studies, and B.A. at Vanderbilt University (Sociology, English, and Women's Studies).
Calvin Seminar on the Power of Race in American Religion
ASHE Institute for Equity and Diversity
Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship
Spencer Research Training Grant Fellowship
AESA Critics Choice Award for Race on Campus
ASHE Promising Scholar/Early Career Award
UMD College of Education Exceptional Scholarship Award
Charles F. Elton Best Paper Award, Association for Institutional Research
Mildred García Junior Exemplary Scholarship Award, ASHE Council on Ethnic Participation
University of Maryland Research and Scholarship Award
Miami University School of Education, Health, and Society Summer Research Award
American College Personnel Administrators (ACPA) Emerging Scholar Award
Finalist, ASHE Dissertation of the Year
ACPA Asian Pacific Islander Network Research Award
Benjamin Cayetano Public Policy and Politics Prize
Clark Award, UCLA Higher Education and Organizational Change
For a full list, go to: Google Scholar
Extracurricular involvement in high school is not an equal playing field (Post for Brookings Brown Center Chalkboard, with Brian Kim)
Park, J.J., Kim, B.H., Wong, N., Zheng, J., Breen, S., Lo, P., Baker, D.J., Rosinger, K.O., Nguyen, M.H., & Poon, O.A. (2023). Inequality beyond standardized tests: Trends in extracurricular activity reporting in college applications across race and class. College Admissions Futures Co-Laborative. Accessible at www.cafcolab.org
Park, J.J. & Dizon, J.P. (2022). The Push for Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions: Highlighting the Perspectives of Student Activists. The Journal of Higher Education, 93(2), 195-219. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2021.1979848
Park, J.J., Kim, Y. K., Lue, K., Zheng, J., Parikh, R., Salazar, C., & Liwanag, A. (2021). Who Are You Studying With? The Role of Diverse Friendships in STEM and Corresponding Inequality. Research in Higher Education, 62(8), 1146-1167. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-021-09638-8
Park, J.J., Dizon, J.P., Malcolm, M. (2020). Spiritual capital in communities of color: Religion and spirituality as sources of community cultural wealth. The Urban Review, 52, 127-150.
Park, J.J. (2018). Race on Campus: Debunking Myths with Data. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.
National Science Foundation, Race, Religion, and STEM: Exploring the Intersections for Black Students, 2022-2025. With Keon McGuire, Elizabeth Barnes, and Robert Palmer.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Test Optional Admissions Policy Equity Outcomes, 2021-2023. With OiYan Poon, Kelly Rosinger, Dominique Baker, and Brian Kim.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Post-Secondary System Opportunities – Evidence & Strategic Analysis, 2021-2023. With Sharon Fries-Britt, Bridget Turner Kelly, and Kimberly Griffin.
National Science Foundation, Connections Matter: The Impact of Social Capital and Social Ties for STEM College Students, 2017-2021. With M. Kevin Eagan and Young K. Kim.
AAST/EDCP 498A, Asian Americans in Education
EDCP 772, Research Design (Dissertation Proposal Design)
EDCP 776, Social Justice in Student Affairs and Higher Education
EDCP 742, Campus Environments
HESI 202, Race and Diversity in Higher Education