About

Julia Elizabeth Neal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Michigan. She specializes in modern and contemporary art of the United States, with a particular emphasis on African American art history. Her research explores the relationships between visual and conceptual elements in art, focusing on emergent politics of identity and (trans)nationalisms since World War II. Neal considers art as a discursive phenomenon that serves nationhood and its social and cultural scripts, and she investigates disguised and disregarded forms of power, including interests in console gaming and constituent cultures of role-playing that model abstractions about individual and world affairs. Her scholarly work includes a book in progress on the intermedia art praxis of Benjamin Patterson, extending from her dissertation titled "Who Taught You to Think (Like That)": Benjamin Patterson's Conceptual Aesthetic. Neal is the author of the 2021 catalogue raisonné 'Performance Works within the Estate of Benjamin Patterson,' which documents Patterson's Hamburg-based archive. Her research has been supported by notable institutions such as the German-American Fulbright Commission, the Getty Research Institute, the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Ford Foundation, the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, and Spelman College. Neal has contributed to exhibitions and scholarly articles, and her work engages with performance art, intermedia practices, and the social and political dimensions of contemporary art.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• World Wide Web
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Social Science
• Developmental psychology
• Mathematics
• Knowledge management
• Marketing
• Social psychology
• Business
• Clinical psychology
• Public relations

Selected publications

• Defining brokers, intermediaries, and boundary spanners: a systematic review

  Evidence & Policy · 2021 · 86 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Political Science
  • Knowledge management

  Background: A growing literature focuses on the roles of brokers, intermediaries, and boundary spanners (BIBS) in addressing the challenges of transferring research evidence between the research and practice or policy communities. Aims and objectives: In this systematic review, we examined two research questions: (1) where, how, and when are different BIBS terms (broker, intermediary, and boundary spanner) used? and (2) which BIBS terms get defined, and when these terms are defined, who are BIBS and what do they do? Methods: We conducted literature searches designed to capture articles on BIBS and the transfer of research evidence. We extracted information about eligible articles’ characteristics, use of BIBS terms, and definitions of BIBS terms. Findings: The search revealed an initial pool of 667 results, of which 277 articles were included after screening. Although we coded 430 separate uses of BIBS terms, only 37.2% of these uses provided explicit definitions. The terms, ‘broker’ and ‘brokerage’, were commonly applied in the health sector to describe a person engaged in multiple functions. The term, ‘intermediary’, was commonly applied in the education sector to describe an organisation engaged in dissemination. Finally, the terms ‘boundary spanner’ and ‘boundary spanning’ were commonly applied in the environment sector to describe people or organisations that engage in relationship building. Discussion and conclusions: Results demonstrated that when BIBS were defined, there were important (albeit implicit) distinctions between terms. Based on these results, we identify archetypal definitions for brokers, intermediaries, and boundary spanners and offer recommendations for future research.

  DOI

• A systematic review of social network methods in high impact developmental psychology journals

  Social Development · 2020 · 101 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Social Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology

  Abstract Although researchers have collected social network data to characterize childhood and adolescent relationships since the 1930s, an expansion of social network analytic techniques has led to the rapid growth of social network data collection in the field of developmental psychology. Despite this growth, reflection on social network methods in developmental psychology has not kept pace. This systematic review aims to understand how articles published in the most visible journals in developmental psychology have collected and analyzed social network data with the goal of critically evaluating these methods to move the field forward. Specifically, after screening 787 articles drawn from a systematic search of the 30 journals with the highest impact factors in developmental psychology, 201 empirical articles employing social network analysis were reviewed. Findings focus on where social network data are collected, who social network data are collected on, what types of social network relationships are collected, and how social network data are collected and analyzed. Review results are used to highlight potential gaps in social network methods as well as the implications of these gaps for understanding developmental processes and to identify recommendations for future social network studies in developmental psychology.

  DOI

• Network selection and influence effects on children’s and adolescents’ internalizing behaviors and peer victimization: A systematic review

  Developmental Review · 2020 · 56 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Psychology
  • Developmental psychology
  • Social psychology
  DOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant F32MH081426

  NIH · $46k · 2009

• Social Networks in the Dissemination of Mental Health Programs to Public Schools

  NIH · $413k · 2015–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Zachary P. Neal

  85 shared

• Elise Cappella

  New York University

  20 shared

• Brian Brutzman

  Michigan State University

  13 shared

• Mariah Kornbluh

  12 shared

• Kristen Mills

  11 shared

• Jennifer Lawlor

  11 shared

• Catalina Torrente

  10 shared

• C. Emily Durbin

  Michigan State University

  8 shared

Awards & honors

• German-American Fulbright Commission
• Getty Research Institute
• Terra Foundation for American Art
• Ford Foundation

Similar researchers at University of Michigan

• Michael Boehnkeh-209
• Peter A. Ward, M.D.h-142
• Brent Gillespieh-102
• Wei Luh-98
• Emily Toth Martinh-95