Murphy is interested in asking the question "What can feminist technoscience be?" They focus on
Canada, the
United States,
Bangladesh, and issues around
chemical exposure,
environmental justice, and
reproductive justice.
Landscapes of Exposure: Knowledge and Illness in Modern Environments, which they co-edited with Gregg Mitman and Chris Sellers in 2004, has been called "a foundational volume in bringing historical and social science perspectives to bear on the intersection of place and disease." Murphy is known for the concept of regimes of imperceptibility, a framework for examining the ways in which different forms of knowledge become visible or invisible within scientific communities and society. They develop these ideas in
Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty: Environmental Politics, Technoscience, and Women Workers (2006). They trace the history of
sick building syndrome (SBS), a diagnosis applied to mass health complaints by office workers for which no cause can be identified. The identification and acceptance of SBS, an inherently uncertain diagnosis, involves gender, race, and power dynamics within "normal science." It is applauded for identifying critical junctures that were previously overlooked, and for its elegant examination of how the "economy of reproduction" operates in both developed and developing worlds. Murphy has said: Murphy continues to work on "Distributed Reproduction," a theorization of reproduction that would extend beyond the individual. This book was awarded the Ludwik Fleck Prize, making Murphy the first person to receive the award multiple times. Murphy is also working on "Alterlife in the Ongoing Aftermaths of Industrial Chemicals," an examination of the transgenerational effects of environmental damage from industrial chemicals in the
Great Lakes region. ==Books==