Julia Harnoncourt completed her master degree in history in 2012 at the University of Vienna. Her master thesis, the outcome of an extensive archival research, deals with population control in 19th century colonial Algeria and was published in 2014. Her later PhD thesis was also published. Unfreie Arbeit: Trabalho escravo in der brasilianischen Landwirtschaft (Unfree Labour: Trabalho escravo in Brazilian agriculture) is the outcome of an interview study done in Pará, a state in the Brazilian Amazon region. It is a labour history project that connects the local with the global. Furthermore, Julia Harnoncourt worked as a lecturer at the University of Vienna teaching Methods of Historical Research and Writing. She published articles on racism, resistance movements against colonialism, more recent social problems, for example the living situations of refugees in Austria as well as a book compiling different feminist texts. She also took part in international conferences for example in Brazil, Senegal, San Salvador, Germany, Greece and Austria.
In the Esch 2022 project „Remixing industrial pasts in the digital age“ researched the history of consumption and women's movements, for two exhibitions, one of them online: https://minett-stories.lu.
In the COLUX project she is researching Luxembourg’s entanglements with colonialism as well as racism against people from overseas.