French and Italian Chair John P. Murphy earned his B.S.L.A. in French from Georgetown University and a joint M.A. and Ph.D. in French studies and anthropology from New York University. Murphy joined Gettysburg College in 2011.
Murphy’s scholarship bridges anthropology and French cultural history. His first book, “Yearning to Labor: Youth, Unemployment, and Social Destiny in Urban France”(University of Nebraska Press, 2017), examines how young people in contemporary France confront economic precarity and social exclusion. His second major project explores the cultural history of frozen food in France—how technologies of preservation have transformed ideas about class, gender, and national identity. He has published multiple articles on the topic in journals such as Modern and Contemporary France; Food and Foodways; and French Politics, Culture & Society. He continues to present this work internationally.
Murphy’s newest research draws from a personal passion: endurance running. A three-time Boston Marathon qualifier and runner—soon to be four—Murphy is developing a comparative ethnography of running cultures in France and the United States. Through this work, he will explore how cultural values surrounding health, discipline, and belonging are expressed through the body itself.
As a teacher, Murphy integrates his anthropological training into every level of his teaching—from elementary language courses to advanced seminars.
His First-Year Seminar, Food Fights! Food, Identity, and Conflict, examines how food mediates questions of belonging, justice, and sustainability across diverse cultural and political contexts. Through a community-engaged learning partnership with the Adams County Farmers Market, his students have collaborated on research supporting local food-access initiatives. In upper-level courses such as French for Professional Purposes, Exploring French Foodways, and Plural France, Murphy helps students develop confidence as communicators while deepening their understanding of how language and culture shape local and global interactions.
At Gettysburg, Murphy has served as department chair, assessment coordinator, and as a member of multiple committees and working groups. Beyond the College, he contributes to his field as a reviewer for journals, presses, and major research foundations. He was also an invited evaluator for one of Gettysburg’s study-abroad providers in France.
“I want students to see that the most important skill they can develop is curiosity—the ability to look at something ordinary and ask, ‘What does this mean, and for whom?’ That’s the heart of anthropology and of a liberal arts education itself,” he said.
Photo by Shawna Sherrell
Posted: 11/13/25