Julie and I met in the mid-70s at Wayne State University (WSU) and, with a number of other faculty across the disciplines, built the interdisciplinary studies (IDS) program for adult learners from the ground up. It was a highly successful program, eventually department, for 34 years, graduating thousands of grateful students with a Bachelor's and/or a Master's degree in IDS. In September 2007, solely for political reasons (the disciplinary departments were worried that their future potential students would flock to our department instead of to theirs), the administration and the Board eliminated our department. I was Chair at the time and had to preside, with a heavy heart, over dissemination of our faculty to their Ph.D. field departments. Julie went to English, and I went to the German area of a newly merged foreign languages department (Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures).  

Julie had introduced me to the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) in 1984, I joined, and the rest is history.  Our regular communication, our annual participation in AIS Conferences, and our collaboration on projects continued through the decades.  

It is hard for me to put into words my gratitude for my longtime friendship with Julie and appreciation of her generous mentorship of younger and more seasoned colleagues and students, at WSU and around the world. Her stellar contributions to IDS teaching, scholarship, and service are on all our minds and in our hearts. Julie was passionate about all of her professional work--to the end; she was an exemplary teacher, scholar, leader, and human being. The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies (ISP) and the English Department and other areas of WSU in which she was active were so fortunate to have her as a faculty member for decades, not to mention all the national and international organizations she helped create and nurture.

Julie’s ISP, English, and AIS families are devastated. No words suffice for the ache and profound loss we feel. Julie was and will forever be in a circle of love and admiration for all she was to her colleagues, friends, family, and students--and the global scholarly community. 

And Julie: you never wanted to be the center of attention (I remember her saying that frequently and, most recently, as she zoomed into the AIS Conference at  Sonoma State University in November 2022 to respond to a panel that was discussing her latest book). But now, my beloved friend, you are exactly that.  And it is something that you would understand because those who loved and respected you and will forever love, respect, and miss you need this communication journey, this exchange of mind and heart, about you.

May Julie's memory always be a blessing to those who knew and loved her. 

Roz (Schindler)

Fierce advocate for us all

Whom we miss deeply 

1.     I can insist that kindness is always possible. 

2.     I get to decide what my identity is about. Her avatar being an anime superhero was a perfect marker of this idea – in a world that loves to tell women who and what they are, she modeled that we can own our identities, and we get to choose what we’re about.

3.     I am confident that it’s okay to be a whole human self even as a professional, and it’s good to invest in making sure others can be their whole selves too. The resulting culture, trust, ideas, and creative impacts will be better for it.  

4.     I can get better and better with age and there’s no reason to be anything but proud about growing wiser. 

5.     The more inclusively and warmly we welcome people into our communities, the more magic we can make together.