Lecturer, Program in the Environment, and Residential College
About
Virginia Murphy is an accomplished teacher and writer focusing on the intersection between environment and literature. Her interests include environmental literature, eco-criticism, late nineteenth and twentieth century American literature, Native American literature, and poetry. Her research addresses American environmentalism in the frontier west, environmental activism, the history of the environmental movement in the US, and working-class women’s autobiographies at the turn of the twentieth century, particularly the role writing played in the change of class status during this time.
Professor Murphy has acted as thesis advisor in areas of environmental sustainability, permaculture design and implementation, environmental justice, urban farming, and food security. Her new course, Environmental Activism: Citizenship in a Republic offers students the opportunity to create eco-documentary films, work with national environmental non-profits, and learn the skills of advocacy.
Professor Murphy serves on the Residential College Executive Committee, Program in the Environment Advisory Committee, and the East Quad Garden Committee. In 2013, the Program in the Environment honored Professor Murphy with its annual Outstanding Instructor Award.
Current courses
Advanced Issues in Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society: Environmental Literature/Social Justice
American Environmentalism and the Frontier West
Environmental Activism: Citizenship in a Republic
First-Year Seminar in the Environment
RC Core: American Writers and the Environment
The Literature of Environmental and Social Justice
