Julio Alicea headshot

Julio Alicea

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University, Camden
Chapter Member: New Jersey-Philadelphia SSN
Areas of Expertise:

Connect with Julio

About Julio

Alicea's research focuses on race and ethnicity, organizations, education, and urban issues. Overarching themes in Alicea's writings include place-based accumulations of racial disadvantage, race-based educational inequality, experiences of racially minoritized youth in changing communities, and organizational drivers of racial inequality. Alicea has published in academic journals like Sociology Compass, Urban Education, and the Urban Review. Alicea has also written publicly, with words in the Christian Science Monitor, the Imprint, EdSource, and the Conversation. Alicea is former public school teacher, trained policy analyst, and former nonprofit board member.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

To Advance Racial Equity, Policy Makers Must Move Away from “Black and Brown” Discourse

Key Findings Brief,

In the News

Opinion: "We Need Targeted Funding for Racial Equity in Our Public Schools. California May Have Some Lessons for All of Us," Julio Alicea, The Hechinger Report, October 24, 2023.
Opinion: "The Pandemic and the Protests Make It Clear: Schools Cannot Ignore the Nation’s Unwavering Anti-Blackness... And Their Own," Julio Alicea, In Motion Magazine, November 20, 2020.
Opinion: "The Time Has Come For Us To Stop Locking Up Other People’s Children," Julio Alicea, The Imprint, September 9, 2020.
Opinion: "Pandemic Reveals How Much California Needs More Community Schools," Julio Alicea, EdSource, June 24, 2020.
Opinion: "The Midterms, Trumpism, and the Increased Racialization of American Childhood," Julio Alicea, Rethinking Schools, October 31, 2018.
Opinion: "To Teach Students Who’ve Experienced Trauma, First Make Them Feel Safe," Julio Alicea, The Christian Science Monitor, September 6, 2017.

Publications

"Placing Youth in the “Spatial Turn”: An Intersectional Analysis of Youth Experiences in a Changing Neighborhood" The Urban Review 55 (2022): 70-93.

Examines the ways in which racially minoritized youth experience a community in racial transition. It centers the voices of youth and calls for greater youth voice in policymaking.

"The Racial State and the Violent (Re)production of Educational Inequality" Sociology Compass 16, no. 6 (2022).

Analyzes the roots of race-based educational inequality by contextualizing the state-level contributions of racial injustice in schools.

"The Role of Education in Reducing Racial Inequality: Possibilities for Change" (with Pedro A. Noguera), in Handbook of Urban Education, edited by H. Richard Milner IV & Kofi Lomotey (Routledge, 2021).

Analyzes the structural roots of race-based educational inequality using case studies and articulates a vision for schools to reduce racial inequality in the larger society.

"Race, Space, and the Built Pedagogical Environment" InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies 17, no. 1 (2021).

Analyzes how schools incorporate the teaching of race and community into the physical design of the school space.

"Teaching in the Hood, About the Hood: A Case Study of Teachers in South Central Los Angeles" Urban Education 57, no. 3 (2021).

Examines how teachers include content about the community in which they teach as part of their efforts at culturally relevant teaching.

"Structural Racism and the Urban Geography of Education" (with Pedro A. Noguera). Phi Delta Kappan 102, no. 3 (2020).

Uses case studies of different urban cities to analyze the structural and place-based roots of racial inequalities in schools.