Julie LaBagnara

I am a PhD student of Sociology at UMass Boston. My research interests include race, crime, perceptions of criminality, and human-animal studies. As an advocate for pit bull-type dogs, I focused my master’s thesis on pit bull-type dogs, race, and perceptions of both the dogs and owners, as well as the criminalization of the dogs and their association with poor, urban young males of color. I am planning to expand this research to investigate the Whiteness of the animal welfare community.