Rate My Professor Julia Cook

Dr Julia Cook is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Newcastle, Australia, in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, College of Human and Social Futures. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on the sociology of youth, time, and housing, alongside economic sociology. Specific interests include the intersections of these areas, such as the role of family financial assistance in young adults’ pathways into home ownership, young people’s navigation of debt and financial assistance including buy now pay later services, futurity, housing, place, residential mobility, sociology of time, young adulthood, and youth. Cook employs qualitative and mixed methods to amplify young people’s voices, informing policy on housing, loans, and family support.

Cook has produced influential works, including the books Longitudinal Methods in Youth Research: Understanding Young Lives Across Time and Space (2024) and Imagined Futures: Hope, Risk and Uncertainty (2018). Key journal articles comprise “Keeping it in the family: understanding the negotiation of intergenerational transfers for entry into homeownership” (2020, Housing Studies) and “Smoothing Rough Transitions: the Extensive Role of Family Assistance in Pathways into Homeownership” (2020, Journal of Applied Youth Studies). She holds the position of co-editor in chief for the Journal of Applied Youth Studies and serves on the editorial boards of Time & Society, Journal of Youth Studies, and Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies. Awards include an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellowship (2022-2025), a 2019 visiting fellowship at the University of Birmingham’s Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM), and selection as a 2022 ABC Top 5 Humanities scholar. As a founding member of the Newcastle Youth Studies Centre and associate member of CHASM and the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies, she leads projects like the ARC-funded Life Patterns program (2021-2026), studies on regional students’ housing, and regional youth debt, contributing to financial literacy and policy. Cook is a regular media commentator.