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Education
- BA, University of California, Santa Cruz
- MA, Columbia University
- MA, New York University
- JD, University of California, Davis School of Law
- PhD, New York University
Background
Julia Mendoza joined the Loyola Law School faculty in 2022. She is an interdisciplinary legal scholar who teaches Criminal Law, Critical Race Theory, and a seminar on Police and Prison Abolition. In addition to her J.D. from UC Davis School of Law, she earned an M.A. in Human Rights from Columbia University, and has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in American Studies from New York University. Before coming to Loyola, Professor Mendoza was a fellow at Stanford Law School and served as a legal fellow at the ACLU of Northern California in the Racial Justice Project. During her fellowship, she worked on two advocacy campaigns that utilized a combination of legislative advocacy, public education, and organizing strategies to address racial disparities within public schools and felon disenfranchisement.
In her research, Professor Mendoza uses historical archival methods as well as oral histories and ethnography to examine racialized harm and to understand how the law fails to atone for racial disparities. Her primary goal as a scholar is to produce research that is helpful for communities experiencing various forms of organized abandonment and disenfranchisement. Through her research projects, she has developed relationships with community members built on mutual trust and respect, enabling her to craft research queries that are both relevant and impactful. She has works published and forthcoming in the UCLA Law Review, UC Davis Law Review, Stanford Law Review Online, and the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Selected Presentations:
- “Graciela Olivárez Latinas in the Legal Academy,” Stanford Law School, Palo Alto, California (May 30, 2023)
- “CULP Colloquium,” Duke Law School, Raleigh, North Carolina (May 15, 2023)
- “Community-Based Research,” Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (April 27, 2021)
- “Abolition 101,” Stanford Law School, Palo Alto, California (November 9, 2020)
- “Police-Free Schools: A Movement Lawyering Perspective,” Stanford Law School, Palo Alto, California (October 26, 2020)
- “Give Me Back My Child!”: The Local History of the School to Prison Pipeline in Stockton California” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Washington, District of Columbia (June 1, 2019)
- “On Top of Prison Row: An Examination of the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Stockton, California,” People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference, American University Washington College of Law, Washington, District of Columbia (March 23, 2019)
- “Policing Latinx Communities,” UCLA Law Review Symposium: Latinx Communities, Race, and the Criminal Justice System, UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, California (February 8, 2019)