Faculty & Staff

Arthur D. Murphy

Arthur Murphy Professor
Social and Economic Anthropology
Ph.D., Temple University
Email: admurphy@uncg.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

Mexico, Central and South America
Household adaptation
Culture and Disaster
Economic development and adaptation
Social Networks
Methods

Courses Taught

ATY 311: Reading Culture and Society
ATY 333: Latin American Societies and Culture
ATY 362 Methods in Cultural Anthropology
ATY 363: History of Anthropological Theory
ATY 377: Disaster, Self and Society
ATY 420: Economic Anthropology
ATY 495: Contemporary Issues in Anthropology

Personal Statement

As a socio-cultural economic anthropologist I am broadly interested in how households adapt to changing economic and environmental contexts. My primary field site is Mexico with additional work among Mexican immigrant households in the United States. I have also carried out field work in Bolivia and Ecuador. Most recently my research has focused on how households and individuals react to and adjust toe extreme events such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and fires. My focus is on how social networks interact with culture to guide the recovery process. I am currently conducting research to study long term grief and recovery among parents and caretakers of children killed and injured in a fire that destroyed a daycare center in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. I am also conducting research on recovery after a copper mine spilled 10.5 million gallons of copper sulfate into the Rio Sonora.

Books

Luque Agraz, D, Martíniz-Yrízar A, Búrquez Montijo, A, López Cruz, G, and Murphy, AD, Complejos Bioculturales de Sonora Pueblos y Territorios Indígenas, Mexico, Hermosillo: CIAD (2016). (view PDF)
Jones, EC and Murphy, AD (eds). The Political Economy of Hazards and Disasters. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press (2009).
Murphy, AD, Stepick, A, Morris, EW, & Winter M, La Cabeza de Jano: La Desigualdad Social En Oaxaca. Oaxaca, Mexico: Instituto Estatal de Educación Pública de Oaxaca. 2002
Murphy, AD, Blanchard, CB, & Hill, JA (eds.). Latino Workers in the Contemporary South. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 2001
Selby, HA, Murphy, AD, Lorenzen, SA, Cabrera, I, Castañeda, A & Ruíz L, I. La Familia en el México Urbano: mecanismos de defensa a la crisis (1978-1992). México, DF: Consejo Nacional Para la Cultura y las Artes. 1994
Selby, HA, Murphy, AD, & Lorenze, SA, The Mexican Urban Household: Organizing for Self-Defense. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 1991
Murphy, AD & Stepick, A. Social Inequality in Oaxaca: A History of Resistance and Change. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1991
Selby, HA, Murphy, AD & Lorenzen SA. The Mexican Urban Household: Organizing for Self Defense. Austin: The University of Texas Press. 1990

Articles

Jones, E. C., Faas, A. J., Murphy, A. D., Tobin, G. A., Whiteford, L. M. (2018). Social Networks and Disaster Risk Perception in Mexico and Ecuador. In M. L. Marvan & E. López-Vázquez (Eds.), Preventing Health and Environmental Risks in Latin America (pp. 151-166). New York: Springer. http:///www.springer.com/series/15232
Jones, E. C., Luque, D., Murphy, A. D. (2018). Preserving Impunity: A Tale of Two Disasters and Governance in Northwest Mexico. Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, 34(2), 218-249.
Murphy, A. D. (2018). Progressive Contextualization: Thinking about Extreme Events (1st ed., vol. 53, pp. 177-184). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Latin American Studies Association.
Tobin, G. A., McCarty, C., Murphy, A. D., Faas, A. J., Whiteford, L. M. (2017). Personal Networks and Long-Term Gendered Post-Disaster Wellbeing in Mexico and Ecuador. In E. C. Jones & A. J. Faas (Eds.), Social Network Analysis of Disaster Response, Recovery, and Adaptation (pp. 239-252). Elsevier. http://www.elsevier.com/
Rangel, M. L., Jones, E. D., Murphy, A. D. (2017). Wellbeing and Participation in New Social Networks following a Day Care Fire in Hermosillo, Mexico. In E. C. Jones & A. J. Faas (Eds.), Social Network Analysis of Disaster Response, Reocvovery, and Adpatation (pp. 177-190). Elsevier. http://www.elsevier.com/
Shannonhouse, L., Barden, S., Jones, E. C., Gonzalez, L., Murphy, A. D. (2017). Secondary Traumatic Stress for Trauma Researchers: A Mixed Methods Research Design. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 38(3), 201-216. https://doi.org/10.17744/mehc.38.3.02
Tobin, G. A., Whitheford, L. M., Jones, E. C., Murphy, A. D. (2015). Chronic Hazard: Weighing Risk Against the Effects of Emergency Evacuation from Popocatepetl, Mexico. In G. A. Tobin & B. E. Montz (Eds.), Evolving Approaches to Understanding Natural Hazards (pp. 96-109). Cambridge Scholars.
Jones, E. C., Murphy, A. D. (2015). Social organization of suffering and justice-seeking in a tragic day care fire disaster. In R. E. Anderson (Ed.), World Suffering and Quality of Life (pp. 281-292). Springer.
Fass, A. J., Jones, E. C., Tobin, G. A., Whiteford, L. M., Murphy, A. D. (2015). Critical Aspects of Social Networks in a Resettlement Setting. Development in Practice, 25(2), 221-233.
Jones, E. C., Murphy, A. D., Fass, A. J., Tobin, G. A., McCarty, C., Whiteford, L. M. (2015). Postdisaster reciprocity and the development of inequality in personal networks. Economic Anthropology, 2(2), 385-404.
Fass, A. J., Jones, E. C., Tobin, G. A., Whiteford, L. M., Murphy, A. D. (2015). Critical Aspects of Social Networks in a Resettlement Setting. Development in Practice, 25(2), 221-233.
Murphy, A. D., Ruiz Silva, I., Reyes Morales, R., Balderas Gil, J. L., Segura, J. J. F. (2015). The Urban System in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. Economic Anthropology, 2(1), 84-96. http://http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sea2.12019/full
Jones, EC, Fass, AJ, Murphy, AD, Tobin, GA, Whiteford, LM, and McCarty, C. Cross-Cultural site-Based Influences on Demographic, Well-being, and Social Network Predictors of Risk Perception in Hazard and disaster Settings in Ecuador and Mexico. Human Nature 40(1), 5-32 (2013)
Jones, EC, Gupta, SN, and Murphy, AD. Inequality, Social Support and Post-Disaster Mental Health in Mexico. Human Organization 70(1), 33-43, 2011
Jones, EC, Murphy, AD, Perilla, Norris, FH, and Pérez-Vargas, I. Data Quality in Multi-sited Cross-Sectional and Panel Studies. Field Methods 2011.
Tobin, GA, Whiteford, LM, Jones, EC, Murphy, AD, Garren, SJ and Vindrola Padros, C, The Role of Individual Well-Being in Risk Perception and Evacuation of Chronic vs. Acute Natural Hazards in Mexico. Applied Geography 700-711, 2011.
Baker, CK, Norrs, FH, Jones, EC and Murphy AD Childhood trauma and adulthood physical health in Mexico. Journal of Behaviorla Medicine, 32, 255-269, 2009.
Tobin, GA, Whiteford, LM, Jones, EC, and Murphy, AD. Chronic Hazard: Weighing Risk against the Effects of Emergency Evacuation from Popocatépetl, México. Proceedings of the Applied Geography Conference, 2007.

Current Projects

I am currently involved in three projects in Mexico. The first is a study of long term grief and recovery among the parents and caregivers of children injured and killed in a daycare fire. The second is a study of recovery along the upper reaches Rio Sonora water shed after the world’s third largest copper mine spilled 10.5 million gallons of copper sulfate into the river. The third is a study of household economics and biocultural adaptation by households living along the Rio May in southern Sonora, Mexico. A salient factor in my research is the idea of justice and how different groups define justice as they develop strategies for moving forward with their lives. These projects are in collaboration with the Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo, Hermosillo, Sonora (www.ciad.mx) and the Red Temática Sobre el Patrimonio Biocultural de México (www.patrimoniobiocultural.com).