Julie Reuben is a historian interested in the intersection between American thought and culture and educational institutions and practice. Her book, Making of the Modern University (1996), examines the relation between changing conceptions of knowledge, standards of scholarship, and the position of religion and morality in the American university during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

She has published articles on the history of academic freedom, affirmative action, student activism and the history of civics in public schools. She is currently researching changing forms of political education mid-twentieth century American universities and is serving as the inaugural faculty director of Phillips Brooks House.