Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy 

DPhil Candidate  

Affiliation: School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography
Expert in: 

Identity, Extraterrestrial Migration
Geographic focus: 

Migration to low Earth orbit and potential lunar habitats

Michael’s work investigates the question, “who are we when we are no longer Earthlings?”. He works with astronauts to understand the impact space travel on concepts of “the self” via ethnographic, artistic, and participatory research, both with flown astronauts and in simulated ‘analogue missions’. His overarching interests hover around studying how extreme journeys transform personal identity and social group formation, having worked with unhoused communities, asylum seekers, explorers, adventurers, and currently in the space sector. He is particularly interested in practices of journaling, storytelling, sketching, photovoice, and film making, and favors co-production with partner communities.