In 2013, Julia received her Bachelor in Sociology with a concentration in Crime & Criminal Justice from Wake Forest University (Magna Cum Laude, North Carolina, United States) and a Master of Science in Crime & Criminal Justice here at Leiden Law School.

More information about Julia Rootenberg

For her master’s thesis, Julia did a visual content analysis on how mass media frames the phenomenon of child sex tourism in the Philippines, and, further, the impact of this framing on public perception and policymaking. After her graduation in 2018, Julia began working as a research & editorial associate to the dean of Leiden Law School, Prof. dr. Joanne van der Leun. 

In October 2020, Julia joined the VVI as a PhD Fellow in Sociology of Law. Her thesis will focus on the formal and informal regulation of public space. She will be supervised by Dr. Danielle Chevalier and Prof. dr. Mr. Maartje van der Woude. Her thesis will be located at the intersection of distinct disciplines, namely: Sociology of Law, Urban Sociology, as well as Constitutional and Administrative Law. 

Prior her move to the Netherlands, Julia was a policy and research intern for a New York-based public defender non-profit, The Bronx Defenders, and was also a sociology tutor at Wake Forest University.

Title research: Formal and informal regulation of space.