Assistant Professor of Anthropology (PhD: UCLA, 2008)
Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway (SBSG) 3306
(949) 824-9234
email: kmmurphy at uci dot edu
I received my A.B. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, and my M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from UCLA. Much of my work explores the relationship between language, material culture, and sociopolitical processes, with a particular emphasis on how these domains intersect with human experience. As a linguistic anthropologist, my main research interests sit at the intersection of design -- as both a cultural category and a social process -- and the study of face-to-face interaction, including both verbal and non-verbal language. I have worked closely with architects in Los Angeles and, more recently, product designers in Stockholm, Sweden, where I examine the interactional construction of an ideological continuity between the design of everyday things (think furniture and other household goods) and social democratic political values.
In addition to my research on design and social interaction, I am (or have been) engaged in several other areas of inquiry, including phenomenology and social theory, cultural theories of volition, as well as a project on institutional barriers to receiving HIV test results.
Selected Publications
Murphy, K.M., O. Grusky, K.J. Roberts, A-N. Swanson. 2005. HIV Testing in an Urgent Care Clinic, in Sexual Health, 2, 1-6.
Murphy, K.M. 2005. Collaborative Imagining: The Interactive Use of Gestures, Talk, and Graphic Representation in Architectural Practice, Semiotica, 156 (1/4), 113-145.
Murphy, K.M. 2004. Imagination as Joint Activity: The Case of Architectural Interaction, in Mind, Culture, and Activity, 11 (4), 267-278.
Murphy, K.M. 2003. Building Meaning in Interaction: Rethinking Gesture Classifications, in Crossroads of Language, Interaction, and Culture, Volume 5, 29-48.
Throop, C.J. and Murphy, K.M. 2002. Bourdieu and Phenomenology: A Critical Assessment, in Anthropological Theory, 2 (2), 185-208.