Going to Durham Will Never be the Same
For fourteen years, I adored Murray Straus more than I can imagine adoring anyone. I met Murray in the summer of 2002 when I attended the biannual International Family Violence/Child Victimization Research Conference . His research center, the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH, had an opening for a new PhD to assume a research position. A "post-doc" position is primarily for newly-minted PhDs, to gain additional, intense training in a specific field of study. In this instance, it was family violence. Having obtained my PhD only one month before, I attended the "Straus Breakfast" one morning and then seized the opportunity to ask about the position. I didn't really know how famous Murray was in the world of family violence, just that he was an important figure. I interviewed on the spot. I started work as his post-doc on October 7, 2002. I was 29 and at the very beginning of a career that felt like it was going nowher...