Contact Information
1301 W. Green St.
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Areas
Biography
Julie Cidell is a native of the Chicago area with a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Minnesota. She has published papers on airport expansion, the suburban logistics landscape, the geography of chocolate, and green buildings. She has worked as a transportation engineer in Boston and taught physical geography in northern and southern California. Currently, she is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where her work focuses on critical perspectives on transportation geography.
Research Interests
transportation
spatiality
urban sustainability
urban political ecology
Research Description
At the broadest level, my research in urban, political, and economic geography focuses on urban infrastructure, especially transportation. I ask how local government and individual actors matter in struggles over large-scale infrastructure and policy development and the corresponding environments that are produced. I consider how space and mobility interact to produce places and processes. In so doing, I seek to broaden the study of transportation within the discipline of geography and to understand how changes in urban sustainability go hand in hand with changes in urban governance.
Education
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
M.A., University of Minnesota
B.A., University of Chicago
Grants
"Using Arts and Culture to Mitigate the Effects of Transportation Infrastructure" Minnesota Department of Transportation
"Electrification, Emissions, Exposure, and Equity: Community-Driven Scenarios for Freight Vehicle Electrification" U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
"The Conventions of Building Green: The Role of Public Policy in the U.S. Green Building Industry." National Science Foundation
Courses Taught
Additional Campus Affiliations
Head, Geography and Geographic Information Science
Professor, Geography and Geographic Information Science
Professor, Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity
Professor, European Union Center
Affiliate, Center for Social & Behavioral Science
Honors & Awards
Beckman Fellow, Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois, 2012-13
Finalist, Nystrom Award, Association of American Geographers
Recent Publications
Cidell, J., Kayzar, B., & Rivera, A. P. (2025). Evaluating the productive frictions of Artist-in-Residence programs in departments of transportation. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 139, Article 104582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2024.104582
Cidell, J. (2024). A Research Agenda for Transport Equity and Mobility Justice: Elgar Research Agendas. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802201888
Cidell, J. (2024). Canals, containers, and corridors: Bringing river geomorphology to North America's largest inland port. Journal of Transport Geography, 115, Article 103819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2024.103819
Cidell, J. (2024). Conclusions, acknowledgments, and calls to action for transport equity and mobility justice. In A Research Agenda for Transport Equity and Mobility Justice: Elgar Research Agendas (pp. 213-220). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802201888.00024
Cidell, J., & Acosta-Cordova, J. (2024). Freight mobility justice: Pollution, places, and people along North American logistics chains. In A Research Agenda for Transport Equity and Mobility Justice: Elgar Research Agendas (pp. 133-144). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802201888.00017