Dr. Mary Chayko is a sociologist, Professor, and Director of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies for the School of Communication and Information (SC&I) at Rutgers University. She is also on the affiliate faculty of Rutgers’ departments of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and she is a Faculty Fellow in Residence for the Rutgers Honors College – New Brunswick.

She has published widely on the impact of the internet and digital media on society and is the author of Connecting: How We Form Social Bonds and Communities in the Internet Age and the Library Journal Social Science Bestseller Portable Communities: The Social Dynamics of Online and Mobile Connectedness, both with SUNY Press, and Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life with Sage Publications.

Mary Chayko’s research is on the impact of the internet, and digital and mobile media, on social connectedness and social life. Her areas of professional interest and research include technology and society, social media and civic engagement, digital connectedness and community, and the use of social technologies in education. She is known for using social media in her classes in innovative ways, and has been honored with the Rutgers University Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching (2019) and named a Rutgers University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Contributor to Undergraduate Education (1994).

For more on Mary Chayko’s teaching, research, writing, and some of her personal interests (including musical selections from her band of folky-social justice influenced sociologists!), see the primary website marychayko.com

For speaking engagements or general correspondence, please email Mary at mary.chayko@rutgers.edu or follow her on LinkedIn, on Instagram at Mary.Chayko, and on Twitter @MaryChayko.