  We present observations of linear polarization from dust thermal emission at
850 $\mu m$ towards the starless cloud L183. These data were obtained at the
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) using the Submillimetre Common-User
Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA-2) camera in conjunction with its polarimeter POL-2.
Polarized dust emission traces the plane-of-sky magnetic field structure in the
cloud, thus allowing us to investigate the role of magnetic fields in the
formation and evolution of its starless core. To interpret these measurements,
we first calculate the dust temperature and column density in L183 by fitting
the spectral energy distribution obtained by combining data from the JCMT and
the $\textit{Herschel}$ space observatory. We used the
Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi technique to measure the magnetic field strength in
five sub-regions of the cloud, and we find values ranging from
$\sim120\pm18~\mu G$ to $\sim270\pm64~\mu G$ in agreement with previous
studies. Combined with an average hydrogen column density ($N_{\text{H}_2}$) of
$\sim 1.5 \times 10^{22} $cm$^{-2}$ in the cloud, we also find that all five
sub-regions are magnetically subcritical. These results indicate that the
magnetic field in L183 is sufficiently strong to oppose the gravitational
collapse of the cloud.
