Skip to main content

Dr. Julie A. Dowling

Profile picture for Dr. Julie A. Dowling

Contact Information

Department of Latina/Latino Students
1207 W. Oregon Street, M/C 136
Urbana, IL 61801
Associate Professor

Biography

Julie A. Dowling (PhD Sociology UT-Austin, 2004) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has published articles on Latino racial identity construction and racial attitudes in a variety of journals including Social Science Quarterly, Sociological Perspectives, Latino Studies, Migraciones Internacionales, and theSouthwest Journal of Linguistics. Her publications have received multiple accolades including the Distinguished Contribution to Research Award for “Best Article” from the Latino/a Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, and an Honorable Mention for the 2009 Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award. Dr. Dowling's book, Mexican Americans and the Question of Race (2014, UT-Austin Press), explores the disjuncture between federal definitions and regional constructions of race, examining Mexican American responses to the U.S. Census race question. Dr. Dowling is originally from Texas, the daughter of a Mexican American mother from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and an Irish American father from the Midwest.

Research Description

Julie Dowling is currently working on two projects. The first is focused on what messages Mexican American parents give their children about racial identity and ideology. The second project is an exploration of how US-born Latina women navigate gender roles and the relationship between their beliefs about gender and their racial/cultural identities. In addition to these projects, she is currently in her third year on the US Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee (NAC). During summer 2016 she completed an 18-month term as convener of a NAC working group focused on enumerating the hard to count populations, including racial/ethnic minorities, homeless persons, immigrants, LGBTQ, and other vulnerable groups. This work culminated in recommendations and a report to assist the Census in reaching these communities.

Additional Campus Affiliations

Associate Professor, Latina/Latino Studies
Associate Professor, Gender and Women's Studies

Highlighted Publications

Dowling, J. A. (2014). Mexican Americans and the Question of Race. University of Texas Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/754010

View all publications on Illinois Experts

Recent Publications

Mora, C., Dowling, J. A., & Rodríguez-Muñiz, M. (2021). “Mostly Rich White Men, Nothing in Common”: Latino Views on Political (Under) Representation in the Trump Era. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(9), 1180-1192. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764221996768

Dowling, J. A. (2018). What i want to pass onto the children: How latinos talk about race and culture. In Latino Peoples in the New America: Racialization and Resistance (pp. 155-172). Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429423987-8

Dowling, J. A. (2014). Mexican Americans and the Question of Race. University of Texas Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/754010

Dowling, J. A., & Inda, J. X. (Eds.) (2013). Governing Immigration Through Crime: A Reader. Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804785419

Hempel, L. M., Dowling, J. A., Boardman, J. D., & Ellison, C. G. (2013). Racial Threat and White Opposition to Bilingual Education in Texas. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 35(1), 85-102. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739986312461626

View all publications on Illinois Experts