Tulane University
- Center For Global Development
- Center For Global Education
- Center For Inter-american Policy And Research
- Central America
- Child Health
- Children's Literature
- Cuba Abroad
- Cuba Embargo
- Cuba-us Relations
- Cuban & Caribbean S
- Cuban & Caribbean Studies
- Cuban Ambassador
- Cuban And Caribbean Studies Institute
- Cuban Artists
- Cuban Film
- Cuban Heritage Collection
- Cuban Theater
- Cuban-american
- Day Of The Dead
- Declining Inequality
- Declining Inequality In Latin America
- Delgado
- Democracy
- Development
- Diaspora
- Disaster Relief
- Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy
- Diversity
- Dominican Republic
- Doris Stone Librarian And Director
- General Latin America
- Glick Fellowship
- Global Development
- Globalization
- Graduate Conference
- Graduate Research
- Graduate Student Conference
- Graduate Students
- Gran Fiesta
- Grants & Fellowships
- Greenleaf
- Greenleaf Fellow
- Indigenous Latin American Languages
- Inequality
- Inter-american Relations
- International Health & Development
- International Programs
- International Relations
- Lasa
- Lasa 2010
- Latin America
- Latin American Library
- Latin American Studies
- Latin Americanist Graduate Association
- Mexican Cultural Institute
- Mexico
- Mexico-u.s. Border
- Miami
- Middle America
- Middle American Research Institute
- Natural Disasters
- Neoliberalism
- New Oreleans
- New Orleans
- New Orleans Center For The Gulf South
- New Orleans Film Festival
- School Of Architecture
- School Of Law
- School Of Liberal Arts
- School Of Public Health & Tropical Medicine
- School Of Public Health And Tropical Medicine
- School Of Science & Engineering
- Social Conflict
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Social Equity
- Social Inclusion
- Social Justice
- Social Movements
- State-society Relations
- Stone Center
- Stone Center For Latin American Studies
- Stone Center Summer Abroad
- Student Funding
- Study Abroad
- Study In Latin America
- Summer
- Summer Abroad
- Summer Field Research
- Summer Programs
- Summer Study Abroad
- Symposium
- Teacher
- Teacher Workshop
- Teacher Workshop; Outreach
- Teacher Workshops
- The Latin American Library
- U.s.-cuban Relations
- Undergraduate
- Undergraduate Conference
- Undergraduate Students
- Unicef
- United States
- (119) Cuba
- (61) Caribbean
- (46) General Latin America
- (42) Haiti
- (30) Cuban & Caribbean Studies
- (29) New Wave
- (14) Music
- (14) Art
- (14) Future Of Cuba
- (13) Cuba-us Relations
- (13) Stone Center For Latin American Studies
- (12) Literature
- (12) South America
- (12) Study Abroad
- (11) Latin America
- (11) Core Faculty
- (10) Lecture
- (10) Community
- (10) School Of Liberal Arts
- (10) Puerto Rico
- (9) Media
- (9) Brazil
- (9) Dominican Republic
- (8) Earthquake
- (6) Cuban-american Relations
- (6) Cipr
- (6) School Of Public Health And Tropical Medicine
- (6) Immigration
- (6) Politics
- (6) Afro-cuban
- (6) Research
- (6) Slavery
- (6) Anthropology
- (6) Spanish & Portuguese
- (6) Art History
- (6) North America
- (5) Environment
- (5) Architecture
- (5) Greenleaf Fellows
- (5) United States
- (5) African Diaspora
- (5) Public Health
- (5) Social Justice
- (5) Culture And Community
- (5) Hispanic Heritage Month
- (5) Public Health In Cuba
- (4) Summer Study Abroad
- (4) Socialism
- (4) Theater
- (4) Undergraduate Students
- (4) Social Work
- (4) Graduate Conference
- (4) Photography
- (4) Law
- (4) Center For Inter-american Policy And Research
- (4) Political Science
- (4) Havana
- (4) Cuba Embargo
- (4) Culture
- (4) Food And Culture
- (3) Environmental Studies
- (3) Louisiana
- (3) School Of Social Work
- (3) Tulane University
- (3) Book Talk
- (3) A.b. Freedman School Of Business
- (3) Revolution
- (3) Film Studies
- (3) Pebbles Center
- (3) Performing Arts
- (3) Disaster Relief
- (3) Spanish
- (3) Community Events
- (3) Symposium
- (3) Spain
- (3) Exhibitions
- (3) Administrator
- (3) Photo Competition
- (2) Racism
- (2) Language And Culture
- (2) Inter-american Relations
- (2) Health
- (2) Migrant Workers
- (2) Archive
- (2) Race
- (2) Migration
- (2) Linguistics
- (2) Lasa 2010
- (2) Cuban And Caribbean Studies Institute
- (2) Poetry
- (2) Graduate Research
- (2) Critical Race Theory
- (2) Diversity
- (2) Haitian Revolution
- (2) Lasa
- (2) Teacher Workshop
- (2) Social Movements
- (2) Festivals
- (2) Spanish America
- (2) Ecuador
- (2) Foreign Policy
- (2) West Indies
- (2) Celebración Latina
- (2) Middle American Research Institute
- (2) Afro-caribbean Religion
- (2) Tulaso
- (2) Urban History
- (2) Curriculum Unit
- (2) Iberian Peninsula
- (2) Borders
- (2) France
- (2) Newcomb
- (2) Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
- (2) Urban Planning
- (2) Latin Jazz
- (2) Filmmaking
- (2) Maya
- (2) Black History Month
- (2) Center For Global Development
- (2) Associated Faculty
- (2) Dance
- (2) Film Series
- (2) Workshop
- (2) Caribbean Literature
- (2) Affiliated Faculty
- (2) Us-mexico Border
- (2) Hurricane
- (2) Development
- (2) Travel
- (2) International Programs
- (2) Museum
- (2) Postcolonial Studies
- (2) Carnival
- (2) Study In Latin America
- (2) Poverty
- (2) Student Funding
- (2) Celebracion Latina
- (2) Greenleaf
- (2) Undergraduate Conference
- (2) Exhibition
- (2) Staff
- (2) New Orleans Film Festival
- (2) Cuban Artists
- (2) New York City
- (1) Labor
- (1) Office Of Multicultural Affairs
- (1) International Students
- (1) Contemporary Arts Center
- (1) Environmental Governance
- (1) K-12 Teacher Workshop
- (1) Tulane Law School
- (1) K-12 Cuba Teacher Institute
- (1) Hurricane Katrina
- (1) Social Studies
- (1) Mexican Consulate
- (1) Social Conflict
- (1) Mexican Cultural Institute
- (1) Carnaval
- (1) Day Of The Dead
- (1) Africa
- (1) Afro Latinos
- (1) Cimafunk
- (1) Mexico-u.s. Border
- (1) Immigrant
- (1) Migrant
- (1) Writing
- (1) U.s.-cuban Relations
- (1) New Orleans Jazz Museum
- (1) Declining Inequality
- (1) Stone Center Summer Abroad
- (1) Belize
- (1) Language Learning
- (1) New Orleans Center For The Gulf South
- (1) Maya Symposium
- (1) Latin Americanist Graduate Association
- (1) Lago Conference
- (1) City
- (1) Graduate Student Conference
- (1) Colonialism
- (1) Declining Inequality In Latin America
- (1) French
- (1) Commitment To Equity
- (1) Gran Fiesta
- (1) Indigenous Latin American Languages
- (1) Non-profit
- (1) Outrearch
- (1) Cuban & Caribbean S
- (1) Global Development
- (1) Trauma Institute
- (1) Democracy
- (1) Audubon Zoo
- (1) Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy
- (1) Social Inclusion
- (1) Afro-brazilian
- (1) Teacher Workshop; Outreach
- (1) Children's Literature
- (1) Police Violence
- (1) Greenleaf Fellow
- (1) Festival
- (1) Centenarios
- (1) Reception
- (1) Stone Center
- (1) Greenleaf Fellowship Program
- (1) Nola
- (1) Christian Science Monitor
- (1) Grants & Fellowships
- (1) Peru
- (1) Natural Disasters
- (1) Hip Hop
- (1) Guitar
- (1) Trinidad & Tobago
- (1) Bahamas
- (1) Asia
- (1) Vietnam
- (1) School Of Public Health & Tropical Medicine
- (1) International Health & Development
- (1) The Latin American Library
- (1) Doris Stone Librarian And Director
- (1) School Of Architecture
- (1) Emeritus Faculty
- (1) French & Italian
- (1) Tulanian
- (1) Associate Professor
- (1) Europe
- (1) School Of Science & Engineering
- (1) Theatre & Dance
- (1) Haitian Creole
- (1) Martinique
- (1) State-society Relations
- (1) Job Opportunity
- (1) Title Vi
- (1) Maternal Health
- (1) Santiago De Cuba
- (1) Cuban-american
- (1) Trade
- (1) Social Entrepreneurship
- (1) Child Health
- (1) Slave Rebellion
- (1) Neoliberalism
- (1) U.s.
- (1) Indigenous Languages
- (1) K'iche'
- (1) Kaqchikel
- (1) Portuguese
- (1) Nationalism
- (1) Cuban Ambassador
Jones Scholar Gwendolyn Murray Finds Global Issues To Be Local Too
November 13th, 2010
By: Shearon Roberts
Photo: Gwen works with student Gavin Meyer at the Urban League. (Photo courtesy of Gwen Murray)
Gwendolyn Murray may have initially set her sights on working with marginalized youth in a global setting, particularly in Latin America. However, after a year working with New Orleans public school students as a tutor, and now as a 2010-2011 Tulane Jones Scholar, Murray has become invested in working with marginalized youth here in New Orleans. The Scott S. Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives at Tulane awards financial stipends through the Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation to pair students with New Orleans public high schools or non-profit educational programs to conduct civic work.
‘This work has created a tension in me,‘ said Murray, a Stone Center PhD student in Latin American Studies. ‘I do have a global focus, but it was not enough to simply be sensitive to issues going on in this city, I needed to do something.‘That something Murray became drawn to was working in 2009 with the Urban League‘s College Track program, tutoring students from low-income communities through an after-school program. As a Jones Scholar, Murray now serves as that program‘s College Affairs Director. She manages curriculum for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students, organizes the advisers for the students, coordinates college tours and recruiter visits, and helps the students navigate the process for admission to college.
‘It‘s really fulfilling work, but its hard work, hard work that needs to be done,‘ Murray said. Although Murray grew up in Seattle, Washington, and earned a bachelor‘s degree from Smith College, she became invested in New Orleans when she pursued her master‘s degree at Tulane at the Stone Center. Like her native Seattle, she saw how education could be a path for low-income students to advance. She became concerned that New Orleans was a place where the wealthy can pay for good private schools, but others were forced into a cyclically under-resourced public school system.
‘I will never be able to wrap my mind around the fact that people don‘t realize that education is the single most socially-constructed barrier to opening opportunities for low-income children,‘ Murray said. ‘In the city of New Orleans, mostly white and wealthy kids go to private, Catholic schools, and black children and Latin American immigrants go to public schools, perpetuating the social design of the city.‘
Working with College Track, Murray wants to ensure that minority children firstly graduate from high school, can meet the requirements to get into colleges, and are prepared to complete college as well.
While Murray has studied media, democracy and development in Brazil for her master‘s degree at the Stone Center, her work with the Urban League has brought her to consider splitting her energy on research and work in education in global and urban settings. Ideally, a career with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would be her first bet for advancing such work. Murray said it is important to mix the practical work in a local community, be it in New Orleans, or in Latin America, with her academic studies – a primary goal of the Jones Scholar program.
‘It‘s easy to get sucked into the narcissistic academic world,‘ Murray said. ‘I really felt that I wasn‘t engaged with the community and this is what it is about for me. I‘m definitely very invested.‘

Copyright © 2021 Roger Thayer Stone Center For Latin American Studies All Rights Reserved.
Tulane University, 100 Jones Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118 (504) 865-5164 rtsclas@tulane.edu