Julia Thomas

Julia Thomas is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Sociology and a predoctoral affiliate of the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Her work focuses on the evolution and maintenance of historical regimes of racialized social control in the United States and racial and ethnic inequality with an emphasis on the contemporary criminal-legal system using a quantitative and interdisciplinary approach. Her dissertation leverages novel georeferenced micro-level datasets and econometric modeling techniques to investigate the legacy of racial and ethnic violence on American capital punishment.

Julia’s work has been published in the American Sociological Review and Social Science Research and has been supported by multiple external sources including the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship.  Her scholarship has received several internal and external distinctions and awards including the American Sociological Association Distinguished Student Paper Award in the Area of Crime, Law, and Deviance.

Julia received her B.A. from Harvard University and her M.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

What is your special talent?

I can bake and decorate layered cakes.

What is your favorite hobby or pastime?

I love to cross stitch and knit.

What’s your favorite outdoor activity?

Going to the beach.