Scholarship
Scholarship Starts With Teaching!
I’ve been teaching for over 25 years (combined) at Rutgers University and Saint Elizabeth University, and am currently a Distinguished Teaching Professor of Communication and Information at the School of Communication and Information (SC&I) at Rutgers. I am also an affiliate faculty member of the departments of Sociology and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies. I received my Ph.D. in Sociology at Rutgers, so it’s a very full-circle experience to be back at Rutgers on the faculty, serving on dissertation committees alongside some of my teachers!
In the classroom, I am known for using social technologies in innovative ways, such as creating assignments for students in multiple universities to work on together while connected on social media. I have been honored with two major year-end teaching awards at Rutgers, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributors to Undergraduate Education. For more on the presidential teaching award:
I am also the Director of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies at SC&I. I produced and voiced the following trailers for the two programs that I oversee and currently teach in: the Digital Communication, Information, and Media Minor and the Gender and Media Minor.
I have taught over 30 different courses at all levels (Ph.D., master’s, undergraduate, and noncredit/professional), in the departments of Sociology, Communication, Journalism and Media Studies, and Digital Communication, Information, and Media. Many courses I created from scratch, including “Digital Technology and Disruptive Change,” which was the first course at Rutgers to be certified for excellence in hybrid or online course design by the Quality Matters organization (co-developed with Denise Kreiger). I have served on 15 doctoral dissertation / qualifying exam committees, and have supervised the research of dozens of master’s and undergraduate students.
Here’s a story that was published in Rutgers Today about my course “Selfies and Digital Culture,” a seminar for first-year students that I created, developed, and taught.
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Research
My research explores the impact of technology on society, from the micro (self, relationships) to the macro (community, society, social justice). I collaborate with faculty colleagues and graduate students in the Behavioral Informatics Lab at the School of Communication and Information, investigating gender bias and stereotypes on digital media platforms and in electronic medical records with my co-principal investigator Dr. Vivek Singh and several students. Some early findings (spoiler alert: we are seeing plenty of bias and stereotyping) are published here: DOI: 10.1002/asi.24335
…and here’s a story in Rutgers Today about this research:
Rutgers Today also published an article on my research on online social connectedness and its relevance to the Covid-19 pandemic:
I am currently researching and writing a book on finding the tricky balance between using digital devices when they are needed and putting them to the side when that’s what is best. It will be the follow-up to Superconnected, which Sage has published in three editions, plus three additional international translations (Korean, Turkish, Serbian).
Finally, I am directing a major multi-year project on the relevance of classic children’s literature from the pre-digital era to our everyday tech-y lives today. See the Digital Betsy-Tacy Project page on the navigation menu of this website for more on this cool new initiative.
My books Superconnected, Portable Communities, Pioneers of Public Sociology, and Connecting can be found (and purchased!) on the home page of this site. Here are a few more selected publications:
The Impact of Emerging Technologies. 2025. In B.N. Frisby & R. Kaufmann (Eds.), Teaching Communication, vol. IV (pp. 540-544). Cognella.
The Practice of Identity: Development, Expression, Performance, Form. 2021. Pp. 115-125 in Routledge Handbook of Digital Media and Communication. Edited by Leah A. Lievrouw and Brian D. Loader. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Digital-Media-and-Communication/Lievrouw-Loader/p/book/9781138672093
Rethinking Community in Communication and Information Studies: Digital Community and Community ‘To Go’. 2020. Chapter 5, Pp. 99-110 in Rethinking Community Through Transdisciplinary Research. Edited by Bettina Jansen. Palgrave. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030310721
Reality, Emotionality, and Intimacy in Digital Social Connecting: The Experience of Being Superconnected. 2019. Sociologjia. LXI:4:513-519. http://www.sociologija.org/admin/published/2019_61/4/648.pdf
In Sync, but Apart: Temporal Symmetry, Social Synchronicity, and Digital Connectedness. 2018. In B. Wellman, L. Robinson, C. Brienza, W. Chen & S. R. Cotton (Eds.), Networks, Hacking, and Media–CITA MS@ 30: Now and Then and Tomorrow (pp. 63-72). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Techno-Social Life: The Internet, Digital Technology, and Social Connectedness. 2014. Sociology Compass. 8:7:976-991 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/soc4.12190/full
I’ll Take My Community To Go. 2009. Vodafone Receiver .http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/ill-take-my-community-to-go
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Talks and Keynotes
I speak and lecture nationally and internationally on how digital technologies are changing the ways that we live and form social connections. Here is a selection of some of these talks, webinars, and keynote addresses:
Webinar for Rutgers University’s Homecoming 2021: “How To Use Social Media More Effectively on the Job and in Everyday Life”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XSEdTHhQCE
With Prof. Christopher Nesi (House of EdTech and Podcast PD host), a webinar for Rutgers AAUP-AFT called “’Class…Class…Anyone?’ A Conversation on Synchronous and Asynchronous Instruction and Different Technologies in Remote Learning”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0l9-DwIC5U
Keynote presentation for Rutgers Libraries’ Information Literacy Summit in 2020 (slides only): Creative Connecting – Keynote, Rutgers Libraries Info Literacy Summit 2020 – August 2020
These photos are from a series of talks I gave in Belgrade, Serbia in September 2019 to officially launch the Serbian translation of Superconnected (see the story at: https://comminfo.rutgers.edu/news/faculty-member-mary-chayko-lectures-and-keynotes-conference-belgrade-serbia):
And this story describes my participation in the Geneva Trialogue in January 2019:
I delivered the keynote address “Time, Space, Technology and Togetherness” at the 2012 Media and History conference at St. Peter’s University. Here’s some video, in three parts.
Part 1, looking at today’s technology use in historical context, and the sociological importance of “hanging out” online:
Part 2, on the emotionality, intimacy and humanity of the online experience and the “rush” of social connectedness
Part 3, concluding remarks and questions and answers:
Some of My Other Favorite Talks
“Becoming Superconnected: Investigating the Process and Experience of Digital Social Interaction.” Keynote address for the Social Media Special Interest Group Workshop, annual meeting of ASIS&T, the Association for Information Science and Technology, Calgary, Canada, October 26, 2024.
“Almost All the Nurses are Women: The Stereotypical Gendering of Occupations in Digital Media Images.” Paper presented at annual conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association, Philadelphia, PA, November 9, 2023.
“The Power and Perils of Teaching with Social Media.” Paper presented at annual conference of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA, August 19, 2023.
“Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life.” Book talk at annual meeting of Eastern Sociological Society, Baltimore, MD, February 26, 2023.
“A Social Media Strategy for Educators.” Paper presented at annual meeting of NJ Association of School Administrators Education and Research Foundation, #Techspo23. Atlantic City, NJ, January 26, 2023.
“The Superconnected Society: How Digital Media Enable Social Connections and Community.” Invited talk, Department of Communication, University of Nevada – Las Vegas. October 12, 2022
“The Living Donor Design Lab: Collaboration, Innovation, and Social Change.” Presentation at #RUOnlineCom annual conference, New Brunswick, NJ, March 15, 2021 (with Veronica Armour, Sunita Kramer, and Advaith Bongu).
“Social Media for Social Justice: Using Social Media in the Classroom to Facilitate Students’ Social Justice ‘Work’.” Paper presented at annual conference of the Coalition for Community Writing, Philadelphia, PA, October 18, 2019.
“Teaching, Collaborating, and Networking with Social Media.” Presentation at annual conference of the American Sociological Association,Teaching and Learning Symposium, New York, NY, August 12, 2019.
“Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life.” Keynote address for New Horizons of Culture, Arts, and Media in the Digital Environment Conference, University of the Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, September 12, 2019.
“Teaching About Superconnectedness.” Featured lecture for information and media literacy event Digitalni Pogon, Kolarac Foundation, Belgrade, Serbia, September 11, 2019.
“New Horizons of Culture, Arts, and Media in the Digital Environment: Opening Panel and Debate.” Member of conference opening panel and debate, University of the Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, September 11, 2019.
“Exploring the Impact of Emerging Technologies in the Classroom.” Workshop and demo presentation for the Geneva Trialogue international conference, University of Geneva (Switzerland), January 21, 2019.
Radford, M., Silipigni Connaway, L., Kitzie, V., Chayko, M., Radford, G., and Floegel, D. (2018, March 25). “Creating and Cultivating a Scholarly Identity Within Digital Worlds.” Workshop presented at the annual iConference, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England.
“Digital Community and Community to Go.” Keynote address, Conference on Re-thinking Community, Dresden, Germany, October 26, 2017.
“Digital Relationships: Making Connections in the Social Media Era.” Invited talk, Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany, October 24, 2017.
