Dr. Susan Murray

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Dr. Susan B. Murray, Associate Professor

DMH 211
408-924-5327

Biography

Susan B. Murray is an Associate Professor in the department of Sociology at San Jose State University. She joined the sociology department in the fall of 1998, after three years of full-time, part-time teaching at several California community colleges and universities.

Dr. Murray received her Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Northern Arizona University in 1984. She received her MA (1987) and Ph.D (1995) in sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Dr. Murray is a social psychologist and has taught courses in sociology of women, sociology of gender, intimacy and marriage, the modern family, violence in the family, feminist theory, alternative culture: lesbian and gay identities, social psychology, and deviance.

Dr. Murray is a qualitative researcher specializing in participant-observation field methods, depth interviewing, and focus group research. Her research interests include violence against women, family violence in racial-ethnic groups, gay and lesbian battering, child care workers, and issues of gender and work. Dr. Murray's research has been published in Qualitative Sociology, Gender & Society, and the National Women's Studies Association Journal.

Dr. Murray describes herself as a community-based sociologist.

At each of the schools where Murray has taught she has involved herself in student-driven concerns, speaking out at a rally against racism; participating in a speak-out against weight oppression, and helping to organize a Take Back the Night march to protest violence against women. As a graduate student Murray worked and conducted research in battered women's shelters, in child care centers, and in the medical field. She volunteered as a crisis intervention worker, a sexual assault advocate, and a Big Sister. During the 1997/98 academic year Murray conducted diversity workshops on racism and homophobia for faculty at De Anza college. Since coming to San Jose State University, Dr. Murray has continued her volunteer commitment as a Court Appointed Special Advocate in Santa Cruz County.

For her current research Murray is interviewing child care workers, staff, and parents connected to child care centers where there have been false accusations of child sexual abuse. She is compiling this data, and other interview and observations data, into a book about child care workers.

Course Descriptions:

THE MODERN FAMILY - SOC 170

Course Description: This is a seminar course emphasizing a sociological examination of the multiple meanings of "family, intimacy, love, and community" in the United States. Beginning with the assumption that the meaning and practice of family life in the United States is mediated through multidimensional systems of gender, race, class and sexuality, we will spend our time exploring these meanings and practices. We will investigate how these categories of experience shape families in the United States through discussion, film, writing, and reading.

Course Objectives:

Understand and apply sociological theories of the family.
Explore the historical development and analysis of "traditional," "modern," and "post-modern" families.
Examine the diversity of family experiences.
Develop critical analytic skills through our reading, discussion, research, and writing.
Help one another to listen, to express ourselves, and to get our intellectual needs met in the classroom.

SOCIOLOGY OF MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY - SOC 175

Course Description: This course emphasizes an interdisciplinary examination of the gender paradigm. Gender, however, cannot be understood independently of race and class. This course, therefore, examines the multidimensional systems of gender, race, class and sexuality. In this course, we will explore how these categories of experience shape the lives of women and men. This is an experiential seminar requiring full participation from all students.

Course Objectives:

Understand and apply sociological theories of gender.
Explore the ways in which gender, race, and class intersect in individual's lives and in social institutions.
Examine the historical construction of racial stereotypes grounded in distorted gendered sexualities.
Explore the political terrain of gender-based social movements.
Develop critical analytic skills through our reading, discussion, and writing.
Help one another to listen, to express ourselves, and to get our intellectual needs met within the classroom context.

VIOLENCE IN THE FAMILY - SOCI 151

Course Description: This course is designed as a sociological examination of violence in the family. As such, we will not be attempting to understand why any one individual has experienced violence in their family. Rather we will examine the social phenomenon/ emotional paradox of "wife abuse," "woman battering," "child abuse," "elder abuse," incest," and "domestic violence," within racial-ethnic and cultural groups. Students will learn about theories of violence and the methods of research used to develop them. More importantly, however, this course will examine how the theories and methods used by social scientists to study violence in the family are incorporated into institutional and community responses to this violence. This course will feature speakers from the many community agencies that deal with violence in families.

Last Updated: June 2007