Mary Chayko
Distinguished Teaching Professor of Communication and Information and Director of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies
Faculty
Biography
Mary Chayko studies and teaches about the impact of the internet, social media, and digital technology on everyday life. Her research explores the ways that people form social connections, relationships, and communities in a digital society. She has written several books and speaks nationally and internationally on the topic.
Chayko's books include Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life, with SAGE Publications, now in its third edition. It has been translated into several languages, including Korean, Turkish, and Serbian. She has also published Portable Communities: The Social Dynamics of Online and Mobile Connectedness and Connecting: How We Form Social Bonds and Communities in the Internet Age, both with SUNY Press.
Chayko is currently conducting research into bias and stereotyping on digital platforms and in electronic medical records with SC&I's Behavioral Informatics Lab. She is also studying the ways that children's literature has changed from the pre-digital to the digital age. She brings all of her research into the classes that she teaches and the programs that she directs: the Digital Communication, Information, and Media minor (DCIM) and the Gender and Media minor. Mary Chayko has been honored with two major year-end awards at Rutgers—the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching (2019) and as a Distinguished Contributor to Undergraduate Education (1992).
Education
Ph.D., Sociology, Rutgers University
M.A., Sociology, Rutgers University
Ed.M., Counseling Psychology, Rutgers University
B.A., Communication and Psychology, Seton Hall University