Position
Lecturer

Qualifications
BSc (Qld) MSc (Auck) PhD (Qld)

Dr. Ann Murphy is an anatomist and skeletal biologist. She teaches Musculoskeletal Anatomy, Visceral Anatomy, Functional Anatomy and
Clinical Anatomy to undergraduate students in the Allied Health professions.
Her research interests involve the skeletons of prehistoric Polynesian
populations from New Zealand.

Dr. Murphy has taught Anatomy at various Australian and New Zealand universities for more than 30 years. Over this time, she has taught medical,
dental, science, health professional, exercise and sports science, and pharmacy undergraduates across most sub-disciplines of Anatomy. In addition, she has developed specialised Anatomy coursework units for postgraduates in Physiotherapy.

Her current research involves the metrical analysis of the postcranial skeleton in prehistoric New Zealand Polynesians, with particular emphasis on sexual dimorphism. Her studies of various components of the postcranial skeleton have generated discriminant functions which demonstrate high levels of accuracy in sex determination. These functions provide a useful tool for the assessment of human remains in various contexts because they incorporate measurements that can be taken on incomplete or fragmentary skeletal material. Another aspect of Dr. Murphy’s research involves the standardisation of postcranial osteometry.

Her earlier research (commencing in 1977) examined the postcranial skeleton in two prehistoric Australian Aboriginal populations: one from the Broadbeach burial site, Southeast Queensland and the other from burial sites in South Australia.

Dr. Murphy has been an active member of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) since the late 1980s. For more than a decade, she has been the elected NTEU delegate for the Discipline of Biomedical Science.

Titles of some of her recent publications are available.

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