Dana Murphy (she/her) is a humanities scholar specializing in Black studies and English. She primarily conducts research on creative, cultural, and literary archives elucidative of Black lives, especially works which emphasize practices of care from the eighteenth century to today. She uses a variety of research methods inspired by feminisms, criticism and theory, and diaspora studies.

Murphy has published or has forthcoming essays in African American Review, CLA Journal, and Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International. She is currently completing her book inspired by Phillis Wheatley.

At Caltech, Murphy teaches courses on multi-ethnic literature and expressive culture, including courses in the English option/minor and the visual culture minor, alongside other scholarship across the humanities. Previously, she was an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She earned her Ph.D. in the English program at the University of California, Irvine.