Julia H. Littell

Julia H. Littell is a Professor at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College (USA). She earned her MA and PhD from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. Her scholarly work focuses on applied epistemology, evidence synthesis, and uses and misuses of research in policy and practice. She has studied processes and outcomes of complex behavioral and psychosocial interventions for children, youth, and families, using field experiments, secondary analysis of data, qualitative research, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis. She is co-author of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (Oxford University Press), Putting Families First: An Experiment in Family Preservation (Aldine de Gruyter) and more than 50 journal articles and book chapters. Professor Littell received the Pro Humanitate Literary Award in 2006 and again in 2009 for her articles on research synthesis and evidence-based practice. In 2015, she received the Olkin Award for distinguished lifetime achievement from the international, interdisciplinary Society for Research Synthesis Methodology. In 2017, she was named a Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research. She serves on several editorial boards, provides training and technical support for the international Campbell Collaboration, and leads workshops on research synthesis methods. 

Research and Scholarly Interests: Applied epistemology; evidence synthesis; uses and misuses of research in policy and practice

Substantive Specialization: Child welfare; behavioral and psychosocial interventions for children, youth, and families; home- and community-based services