Dr. Murray received her Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Northern Arizona University in 1985. She received her MA (1987) and Ph.D. (1995) in sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Dr. Murray is a feminist sociologist and has taught courses in sociology of gender, family, LGBT studies, violence in the family, feminist theory, poverty, wealth, and privilege, social psychology, and deviance. Dr. Murray describes herself as a community-based sociologist. She is a qualitative researcher specializing in participant-observation field methods, depth interviewing, and focus group research. Her research interests include campus climate, immigrant students, violence against women, family violence in communities of color, gay and lesbian battering, child care work, and the challenges facing gender variant people.