Julie R. Posselt

Dr. Julie R. Posselt is a Professor of higher education in the Rossier School of Education, Co-Director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education, and Associate Dean in the USC Graduate School. Rooted in sociological and organizational theory, her research program uses mixed methods to examine institutionalized inequalities in higher education and organizational efforts to address inequities and improve wellbeing. She focuses on selective sectors of higher education— graduate education, STEM fields, and elite undergraduate institutions—where longstanding practices and cultural norms are continually being negotiated to identify talent and educate students in a changing society. Her current research examines AI hesitance and adoption in admissions as well as responses of colleges and universities to the Supreme Court's 2023 SFFA decision.

She was the recipient of the 2018 American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Early Career Award and the 2017 Association for the Study of Higher Education’s Early Career/ Promising Scholar Award. In 2025, she was elected an AERA Fellow. In total, Posselt has been awarded more than $21 million in grants and contracts over her career. 

Her first book, Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping (2016, Harvard University Press), was based on an award-winning ethnographic study of faculty judgment in 10 highly ranked doctoral programs in three universities. In her second book, Equity in Science: Representation, Culture, and the Dynamics of Change in Graduate Education (2020, Stanford University Press) Posselt offered a comparative case study of equity and diversity efforts in STEM organizations, revealing the role of disciplinary cultures and strategies for systemic change. She and Adrianna Kezar co-edited Higher Education Administration for Social Justice and Equity (2020, Routledge; 2nd edition, 2026) with top education scholars and equity-minded administrative professionals. Her current book project, It Doesn't Take a PhD to Get Into Grad School will be published by Princeton University Press for aspiring graduate students.

This work has led to thriving research-practice partnerships with universities, disciplinary societies, graduate schools & academic departments. Dr. Posselt founded and directs the Equity in Graduate Education Consortium (EquityGradEd.org), a national professional learning community of 24 universities and graduate programs. The consortium has been replicated in England, and partners in both countries are transforming individual and organizational practice while adhering to legal restrictions on race-conscious admissions. 

Her current scholarship, funded by the Sloan Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and Gates Foundation. Posselt's research is published in the American Educational Research Journal, Science, Nature, Annual Review of Sociology, Research in Higher Education, Journal of Higher Education, Teachers College Record, Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among others. Her work has been highlighted in Science, The Atlantic, New York Times, Slate, Times Higher Education (UK), Inside Higher Ed, among others. She is past Associate Editor of the Journal of Higher Education’s and is a member of numerous editorial review boards and advisory boards. 

Posselt earned the PhD from the University of Michigan and received a National Academy of Education/ Spencer Foundation postdoctoral research fellowship.

Forbes magazine. Higher Education Admissions Influencer. 2019.

American Educational Research Association, Early Career Award, 2018

Association for the Study of Higher Education, Early Career Award, 2017

USC Rossier School of Education, Outstanding PhD faculty member, 2017

National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2015-2017

American Educational Research Association, Outstanding Dissertation Award, Doctoral Education Special Interest Group, 2014¨

University of Michigan School of Education, Dimond Outstanding Dissertation Award, 2014

Emerald Publishing Group, Highly Commended Award Winner, for “Developing the research identities and aspirations of first-generation college students: Evidence from the McNair scholars program”, 2013

American Educational Research Journal, Outstanding Reviewer, 2013

ED 653: Advanced Qualitative Research Methods 1

ED 654: Advanced Qualitative Research Methods 2

ED 688: Institutions, Organizations, and Equity in Education

ED 708: Advanced Student Development Theory

ED 707: Administration in Higher Education

• Book: Posselt, J. R. (2020). Equity in science: Representation, culture, and the dynamics of change in graduate education. Stanford University Press.
• Book: Kezar, A. & Posselt, J. R. (Eds.) (2019). Administration for social justice and equity in higher education: Critical perspectives for leadership. New York: Routledge. (Second edition scheduled for March 2026 publication)
• Book: Posselt, J. R. (2016). Inside graduate admissions: Merit, diversity, and faculty gatekeeping. Harvard University Press. (Paperback, 2017; Chinese translation, 2025, via Tsinghua University Press)
• Posselt, J. R., Southern, D. E., Hernandez, T. E., Desir, S., Alleyne, F., & Miller, C. (2025). Redefining merit through new routines: Holistic admissions policy implementation during COVID-19. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. DOI: 10.3102/01623737231201612
• Posselt, J. R., Tejwani, J., Ambroso, E., McDaniels, M., Kostyu, E., Miller, C., Santos, S., Schlatterer, J., & Agueros, M. (2025). Retooling STEM for equity: Lessons from the Inclusive Graduate Education Network. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000641
• Rosinger, K., Posselt, J., & Miller, C. (2025). Reconstructing PhD admissions through organizational learning. The Journal of Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2025.2451609
• Desir, S. & Posselt, J. (2025). Can professional societies contribute to systemic change? Sensegiving, sensemaking, and strategies for departmental transformation. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000665
• Hernandez, T. E., & Posselt, J. (2024). “They don’t really care”: STEM doctoral students’ unsupportive interactions with faculty and institutions. Education Sciences, 14(4), 392. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14040392
• Villarreal, C., Hernandez, T., Posselt, J., & Rudolph. A. (2024). Bridging the gap: A sequential mixed methods study of trust networks in graduate application, admissions, and enrollment. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 30 (6), 1-30. DOI: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2023045735
• Posselt, J. (2023). Innovation to Isomorphism in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts: Opportunities and Cautions for Higher Education. Change Magazine. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2023.2213575
• Liera, R., Posselt, J., Rodgers, A., & Irwin, L. (2023). Rethinking qualifying exams and doctoral candidacy in the physical sciences: Learning toward scientific legitimacy. Physical Review Physics Education Research. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.19.020110
• Rosinger, K., Ford, K., Posselt, J., & Choi, J. (2022). Exploring the Impact of Test-Flexible Admissions on Law School Diversity and Selectivity. Review of Higher Education.
• Irwin, L., & Posselt, J. (2022). Racialization in leadership theory: A critical discourse analysis of prevailing leadership development models. Journal of Leadership Education.
• Nuñez, A-M., Posselt, J. R., Hallmark, T., Rivera, J., & Southern, D. (2021). The organization of learning in geoscience fieldwork and implications for inclusion. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 27, 3. DOI: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2021031264
• Harris, L., Garza, C., Parrish, J., Posselt, J., Hatch, M.,…. (2021). Equitable Exchange: A framework for diversity and inclusion in the geosciences. AGU Advances 2, 2. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020AV000359
• Posselt, J. R. & Nuñez, A. M. (2021). Learning in the wild: The social construction of a gendered disciplinary culture. Journal of Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2021.1971505
• Southern, D. E., Posselt, J. R., Harris, L., Garza, C., & Parrish, J. K. (2022). Boundary spanning leadership in community-centered geoscience research. Journal of Geoscience Education, 1-13.
• Posselt, J. (2021). Social factors in graduate and professional student mental health: Examining discrimination, support, and competitiveness. Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education. https://doi.org/10.1108/SGPE-07-2020-0042
• Posselt, J. R., Hernandez, T. E., Villarreal, C. D., Rodgers, A., Irwin, L. (2020). Evaluation and decision making in higher education: Creating equitable repertoires of faculty practice. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research 35. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11743-6_8-1
• Posselt, J., Hernandez, T., Cochran, G., & Miller, C. (2020). Metrics first, diversity later? Making the short list and getting admitted to selective physics Ph.D. programs. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2019027863
• Miller, C., Zwickl, B., Posselt, J., & Hodapp, T. (2019). Typical PhD admissions criteria exclude women and minorities but fail to predict doctoral completion. Science Advances 5 (1). https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaat7550
• Glasener, K., Martell, C., & Posselt, J. (2019). Framing diversity: Examining the place of race in institutional policy and practice post-affirmative action. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education (1), 3-16.
• Posselt, J. R., Chen, J., Dixon, P. G., Jackson, J. F., Kirsch, R., Núñez, A. M., & Teppen,  B. J. (2019). Advancing inclusion in the geosciences: An overview of the NSF-GOLD program.  Journal of Geoscience Education, 67(4), 313-319.
• Slay, K., Reyes, K., & Posselt, J. (2019). Bait and switch? Representation, climate, and the tensions of diversity work in graduate education. The Review of Higher Education 42 (5), 255-286.
• Rudolph, A., Holley-Boeckelmann, K., & Posselt, J. (2019). PhD bridge programmes as engines for access, diversity, and inclusion. Nature Astronomy 3, 1080-1085. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0962-1
• Posselt, J., Porter, K., & Kamimura, A. (2018). Organizational pathways toward gender equity in STEM. American Journal of Education.
• Slay, K., Reyes, K., & Posselt, J. (2019). Bait and switch? Representation, climate, and the tensions of diversity in graduate education. Review of Higher Education.
• Posselt, J. R. (In press for August 2018). Normalizing struggle: Dimensions of faculty support for doctoral students and implications for persistence and wellbeing. Journal of Higher Education.
• Posselt, J. R. (In press for Summer 2018). Trust networks: A new perspective on pedigree and the ambiguities of admissions. Accepted in Review of Higher Education.
• Posselt, J. (2018). Review of ‘The Diversity Bargain and other Dilemmas of Race, Admissions, and Meritocracy at Elite Universities.’ Political Science Quarterly.
• Posselt, J. (2018). Rigor and support in racialized learning environments: The case of graduate education. New Directions for Higher Education 181, 59-70.
• Posselt, J. & Grodsky, E. (2017). Graduate education and social stratification. Annual Review of Sociology 43, 353-378.
• McCallum, C., Posselt, J.R., & Lopez, E. (2017). Graduate school choice for African Americans: Relating the roles of family, fictive kin, faculty, & student affairs practitioners. In A. Mountford-Zimdars, & N. Harrison (Eds.). Access to higher education: Theoretical perspectives and contemporary challenges. New York: Routledge.  
• Posselt, J. R., Reyes, K. A., Slay, K., Kamimura, A., and Porter, K. (2017). Equity efforts as boundary work: How symbolic and social boundaries shape access and inclusion in graduate education. Accepted in Teachers College Record.
• Posselt, J. R. (2016). Inside graduate admissions: Merit, diversity, and faculty gatekeeping. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
•  Eisenberg, D., Lipson, S., & Posselt, J. R. (2016). Promoting resilience and retention. New Directions in Student Services: College Student Mental Health. Vol.156.
• Posselt, J. R., Lipson, S. K. (2016). Competitiveness and mental health in the college classroom: Variations across social identities and fields of study. Journal of College Student Development 57 (8), 973-989.
• Jaquette, O., Curs, B., & Posselt, J.R. (2016). Tuition rich, mission poor: Nonresident enrollment and the changing racial and class composition of public research universities.  Journal of Higher Education 87 (5), 635-673.
• Posselt, J. R. (2015).  Disciplinary logics in doctoral admissions: Understanding patterns of faculty evaluation. Journal of Higher Education 86 (6), 807-833.
• Posselt, J. R. (2015). Applicant evaluation as admissions practice: A socio-cognitive framework of faculty judgment. International Handbook of Higher Education Admissions Policy. New York: Peter Lang Publishers.
• Kamimura, A. P. & Posselt, J. R. (2015).  The benefits of diversity for innovation in academic research. In L. R. Roberts, L. Wooten, & M. Davidson (Eds.) Positive Organizing in a Global Society: Understanding and Engaging Differences for Capacity Building and Inclusion. New York: Routledge.   
• Bielby, R., Posselt, J. R., Bastedo, M., & Jaquette, O. (2014). Why are women underrepresented in elite colleges and universities? A non-linear decomposition analysis. Research in Higher Education 55 (8), 735-760.
• Posselt, J. R. (2014). Toward inclusive excellence in U.S. graduate education: Constructing merit and diversity in PhD admissions. American Journal of Education, 120(4), 481-514.
• Posselt, J. R., Jaquette, O., Bielby, R. & Bastedo, M. (2012). Access without equity: Longitudinal analyses of institutional stratification by race and ethnicity, 1972-2004. American Educational Research Journal 49 (6), 1074-1111.
• Posselt, J. R. & Black, K. R. (2012). Developing the research identities and aspirations of first-generation college students: Evidence from the McNair Scholars Program. International Journal of Researcher Development 3(1), 26-48.
• Masse, J. C., Perez, R. J., Posselt, J. R. (2010). Revisiting college predisposition: Integrating sociological and psychological perspectives on inequality. Equity and Excellence in Education 43 (3), 279-293.
• Posselt, J. R. (2009).  The rise and fall of need-based grants: A critical review of presidential discourses on higher education.  Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, Volume 24, 183-226.
• Posselt, J. R., & Black, K. R. (2007). Students to scholars: An undergraduate research curriculum facilitating graduate school enrollment.  In Karutkis, K.K. and Elgren, T. (Eds). Designing, Implementing, and Sustaining a Research-Supportive Undergraduate Curriculum. Washington, DC: Council on Undergraduate Research.
• Hess, D. & Posselt, J. R. (2002). How students experience and learn from the discussion of controversial public issues in secondary social studies. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 17(4), 283-314.

Associate Dean, USC Graduate School, 2021-Present

Professor, University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education, 2023- Present

Associate Professor, University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education, 2019-2023

Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education, 2016-2019

Assistant Professor, University of Michigan School of Education, 2013-2016

Assistant Director, McNair Scholars Program, University of Northern Colorado, 2003-2007

My team and I examine institutionalized inequalities in higher education and academia, as well as efforts to address inequities and improve wellbeing in these sectors. This work informs public policy and institutional practice — at USC, nationally, and internationally. I  advised the Biden-Harris administration on their STEM equity and educational opportunity agendas, served on three National Academies consensus studies, and have developed impactful research-practice partnerships with universities and disciplinary societies. In these activities, and as President of the Sociology of Education, Associate Dean of the USC Graduate School, Co-Director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education, and a mentor to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, I offer relational, adaptive leadership and a commitment to walking the talk of inclusive excellence. 

“Service Agreements for Equity in Graduate Education Consortium Memberships,” 2024-2026, totaling $196,500.

“Research-College Partnership on the Impact of the Affirmative Action Decision,” Andrew J. Mellon Foundation (Co-PI, Subaward from the Urban Institute), 2024-2026, $244,000.

“Collaborative “INCLUDES Alliance: Inclusive Graduate Education Network”; Principal Investigator.” 2018-2024. 2018 USC award $1,498,324; 2022 supplement $75,199; 2023 supplement $119,870.

"Building Capacity of the Sloan Centers for Systemic Change: A Partnership with the Equity in Graduate Education Consortium,” Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Trustee Grant, 2024-2026, $1,200,303.

“Examining the Potential and Limits of Rubrics as Tools of Racial Equity in Graduate Admissions: A Sequential Mixed Methods Study”, National Science Foundation, 2023-2027, $1,279,774.

“Equity in Graduate Education Consortium”, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Trustee Grant, 2022-2024, $563,088.

“Service Agreements for Equity in Graduate Education Consortium Memberships,”  2022-2024, totaling $266,000.

"Alliance for Multicampus Inclusive Graduate Admissions" (a.k.a., AMIGA). Mellon Foundation. (Assessment Lead & Senior Advisor; Subaward from the University of California), 2018-2022. $1,200,000.

"A National Network for Access and Inclusion in Physics Graduate Education", (a.k.a., Inclusive Graduate Education Network, IGEN). National Science Foundation INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot, (Co-Principal Investigator; Subaward from the American Physical Society), 2016-2018. $300,000.

"Fieldwork Inspiring Expanded Leadership for Diversity" (FIELD). National Science Foundation GOLD, (Principal Investigator; Collaborative Research project), 2017-2020. $400,000.

"Active Societal Participation in Research and Education" (ASPIRE). National Science Foundation GOLD, (Principal Investigator; Collaborative Research project), 2016-2018. $400,000.

“Transforming Graduate Admissions.” Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (Subaward from University of California). 2015-2016. $150,000.

“Competitiveness, Equity, and Mental Health in Graduate Education” (Principal Investigator). National Academy of Education/ Spencer Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship, 2015-2017. $75,000

 “How can STEM Graduate Programs Diversify in a Post-Affirmative Action Context?” (Principal Investigator). Spencer Foundation, 2014-2015, $49,983.

 “Merit and Diversity in Doctoral Admissions: Examining the Dynamics of Faculty Judgment” (Principal Investigator). Rackham Predoctoral Dissertation Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2012-2013, Competitive selection, $28,200.

“Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program,” U.S. Department of Education program grant for the University of Northern Colorado, (Co-author with Kim Black). $1,011,384.

Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Workshop on Quasi-Experimental Design, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; August 2012