Dr Dean Murphy
PhD
Current areas of research:
- Sexuality and gender
- Understandings of diagnosis (HIV and blood-borne viruses)
- Drug and alcohol consumption practices
- Understandings of biomedical HIV prevention technologies
- HIV-related stigma
- LGBTQ kinship
- HIV health promotion and evaluation
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Dean's PhD thesis won the inaugural prize for best unpublished manuscript by an early-career researcher or higher-degree completer in the聽Dean鈥檚 Research Awards series. A book based on this research, Gay men pursuing parenthood through surrogacy: Reconfiguring kinship,聽analyses how
relatedness is enacted in the context of gay men pursuing parenthood through both domestic and transnational surrogacy arrangements. These men represent an important first generation to access assisted reproductive technologies for this purpose and are part of an increasing proportion of gay men becoming parents outside a (previous) heterosexual relationship.
Drawing on data collected from in-depth interviews with gay men living in Australia and the USA, the book explores how gay men 鈥榚nact鈥 parenthood and family life in ways that both challenge and reinforce dominant notions of kinship and masculinity. The findings demonstrate that men come to experience parenthood desire largely because of the new narratives and opportunities being made available to them today. Like most people, they grew up with parenthood expectations, although these were challenged when they assumed a gay identity.