Joshua Murray

Associate Professor of Sociology
Affiliated Faculty, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions

Joshua Murray is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University. His research develops theoretically grounded explanations of power, conflict, and institutional change, with a particular focus on corporate elites, labor movements, and political influence. His work seeks to move beyond descriptive accounts by building frameworks capable of explaining—and, where possible, predicting—key social outcomes.

He is the co-author (with Michael Schwartz) of Wrecked: How the American Automobile Industry Destroyed Its Capacity to Compete (2019), which analyzes structural vulnerabilities in the auto industry, executive strategy, and class conflict. The book has been cited by national outlets such as The New York Times to contextualize contemporary corporate and labor dynamics. His scholarly articles, published in journals such as American Journal of Sociology and Social Problems, examine topics including class formation, strike dynamics, and the interaction between moral claims and structural leverage in collective action.

At Vanderbilt, he teaches courses that examine the development and testing of sociological theory, train students in quantitative methods, and use baseball as a lens to understand key aspects of society and human behavior. He has received the Jeffrey Nordhaus Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Across his research and teaching, Murray emphasizes theoretical clarity, causal logic, and the systematic evaluation of competing explanations.