Julie Stewart joined the Comunidades Unidas Board of Directors in 2017 after years of collaboration around Latinx immigrant rights. She is a member of the executive committee and serves as the Vice-Chair. Julie is an Associate Professor of Honors at Westminster College, serves as the Assistant Director of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment for the Honors College, and is the Director of the Customized Major program at Westminster. She holds a BA from Cornell University, an MA in Latin American Studies from Tulane University, and a PhD in Sociology from New York University. Although Utah has always been her home, she has lived in New York City, Managua, New Orleans, San Jose, and Guatemala City.

 

Her interest in Latin American politics motivated much of her travel and her teaching and research interests broadly fall into four fields: public policy, social movements, migration, and development. What unites them is a thematic focus on displacement – both voluntary and forced.  She seeks to better understand how people re-build community, engage in the political process, and strive for upward mobility after displacement. She has published broadly on Guatemalan refugee experiences, Mexican immigration trajectories, and migration policy in the U.S. Her research has been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the John D. Rockefeller Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation and the National Center for Border Security and Immigration. Julie is passionate about community activism, clean air, social inclusion, and the outdoors. She lives in the Liberty Wells area with her husband, two sons, and five chickens.