PhD Candidate. MA (2006) University of Maryland. MA (2004)University of Miami.
Anaya McMurray is a fourth year doctoral students in the department of Women’s Studies. She holds a Bachelors in Music Education and a Masters in Curriculum and Teacher Leadership from Miami University. She has also completed her Masters in Women’s Studies here at the University of Maryland (UMD). Her area of specialization is Art, Culture, and Social Change with a concentration on black women’s spirituality and social justice in popular culture. Anaya’s current research explores black women’s spirituality through music in hip-hop culture. In addition to her research, she also teaches several courses at UMD. She has taught WMST 250: Introduction to Women’s Studies—Women, Art, and Culture; WMST 498A: Women in Hip Hop Culture; and has been a TA for AASP 202: Black Culture in the United States. In the next academic year she will also teach WMST 263: Introduction to Black Women’s Studies and WMST 200: Introduction to Women’s Studies—Women and Society. When Anaya is not studying or teaching, she is usually songwriting, producing, or engineering in her home studio; playing basketball; or watching sports and movies.
Research Interests:
Art, culture and social change; black women’s spirituality; social justice in popular culture.