User:ProfMurphy

ProfMurphy holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. (all granted by U.S. universities) in the history of art and visual culture. The central focus of his graduate education was issues of gender and sexuality, including LGBTQ/sexual minorities, in 19th-20th century art, visual, and material culture. He has done significant reading, writing, and archival research on film, photography, fashion/clothing, illustration, advertising, and other graphic arts. As of 2016, he is a tenured professor of gender and sexuality studies at a public university in central Illinois (U.S.A.) He teaches courses in women's/gender studies, LGBTQ+ studies, human sexualities, critical men's/masculinity studies, and related subjects.

In addition to numerous encyclopedia and journal articles, and book chapters, he has published a co-edited book on classroom activities for teaching about gender and sexuality to college students and edited a college textbook on LGBTQIA history, culture, and society (for which he wrote chapters on LGBTQIA sexual behavior/health and social diversity.) In the past, he has assigned student projects involving the creation and editing of articles on Wikipedia. Now, he makes occasional edits to existing articles in his several areas of expertise and, more rarely, creates new articles. He welcomes respectful editing and discussion of his contributions to the Wikipedia project.

ProfMurphy no longer makes substantial contributions to Wikipedia. Despite the spirit of openness and community that once characterized this project, many articles now have self-appointed guardians (i.e. "editors") who wield the arcane rules of Wikipedia to defend problematic content against all changes, even by those with documented subject matter expertise (i.e. "experts"). One shouldn't have to be an IT expert to make a substantive contribution to Wikipedia and the quality and reputation of Wikipedia entries will decline if that is required.
 * Edit 11 December 2018*