On September 18, 2018, CKA’s Interim Executive Director Jessica Lee sat down with Julie J. Park, an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park and a consulting expert for Harvard University on its ongoing lawsuit to discuss the ongoing discussions on race and its impact on the college admissions process.
Dr. Park’s research addresses how race, religion, and social class affect diversity and equity in higher education, including the diverse experiences of Asian American college students. She is currently the Principal Investigator on a project funded by the National Science Foundation, “Connections Matter: The Impact of Social Capital and Social Ties for STEM College Students.”
Her upcoming book Race on Campus: Debunking Myths with Data (Harvard Education Press, forthcoming) tackles misconceptions about how race and diversity work in higher education. She is also the author of When Diversity Drops: Race, Religion, and Affirmative Action in Higher Education(Rutgers University Press, 2013), an examination of how universities are affected by bans on affirmative action.
She is an associate editor for the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Besides being published in academic journals, her commentary has also appeared in venues like the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Dr. Park 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).
