I am an Associate Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. I am affiliated with the Baltimore Education Research Consortium, the Hopkins Population Center, and the Institute for Data-Intensive Engineering and Science. I received my PhD from the University of Chicago and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University. When I arrived at Hopkins I held a joint appointment with the School of Education. In 2023, I transitioned to a full-time appointment in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

My research combines the sociology of education and urban sociology to study the social and spatial structures that shape educational opportunity. I have studied the effects of concentrated neighborhood poverty on cognitive development, the geography of elementary school openings and closings, the national distribution of school quality across urban, suburban, and rural areas, school segregation dynamics, school choice and neighborhood social fragmentation, and the impact of neighborhood and school violence on student test scores, school transfers, and high school enrollment patterns. My current projects focus on the impact of student commutes on attendance and enrollment. Methodologically, I use a range of quantitative data from administrative files, surveys, and natural experiments to explore hierarchical, spatial, and computational models for causal inference.

230.109 First-Year Seminar: Hot Topics in Education

360.247 Introduction to Social Policy and Inequality: Baltimore and Beyond

230.312 Education & Society

230.322 Quantitative Research Practicum

230.428/618 Introduction to Computational Social Science

230.604 Linear Models

855.755 How Schools Work

Burdick-Will, Julia, and Marc L. Stein. 2025. “Transit Trade-offs: Transportation Difficulty, Schedule Variation, and School Preferences.” Social Science Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103160.

Burdick-Will, Julia, and Marc L. Stein. 2024. “Running Late: Student Commutes and High School Tardiness in Baltimore City.” Educational Researcher 53(7): 412-419.

Burdick-Will, Julia, Leela Gebo, and Alexandra D. Williams. 2024. “Anywhere but Here: Neighborhood Violence and Local School Preferences in Baltimore City.” Sociology of Education 97(1): 1-20.

Burdick-Will, Julia, Kiara M. Nerenberg, Jeffrey A. Grigg, and Faith Connolly. 2021. “Student Mobility and Violent Crime Exposure at Baltimore City Public Schools.” American Educational Research Journal 58(3): 602-634.

Stein, Marc L., Julia Burdick-Will, and Jeffrey Grigg. 2021. “A Choice Too Far: Transit Difficulty and Early High School Transfer.” Educational Researcher 50(3): 137-144.

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.

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).

Long bus rides limit students’ school choices, Hopkins study finds
The Baltimore Banner. July 17, 2025

It’s not just late buses: Baltimore kids face serious safety risks
The Baltimore Banner. June 23, 2025

Want better school commutes in Baltimore? First, find out who’s riding the bus
The Baltimore Banner. May 9, 2025

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.