Interdisciplinary Teaching Professor and Director of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies Mary Chayko has been reappointed Faculty Fellow in Residence at the Honors College-New Brunswick for the fourth consecutive year in 2020-2021. She will conduct and share her research on the impact of digital technology and social media on individuals and their societies, and support the Honors College in its mission to provide students with a strong foundation in interdisciplinary education.

“It’s an honor and pleasure to work with everyone associated with the Honors College, and to reside there alongside such distinguished faculty as Prof. Matt Matsuda (Academic Dean of the Honors College and Professor, Department of History) and Aaron Mazzeo (Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering),” Chayko said. “It is a career highlight, for sure, and I look forward to another exciting year.”

The 2020-2021 academic year will look a little different from past years. Students will not immediately be in residence in the Honors College building, and most classes at Rutgers will be offered remotely. Chayko’s research and expertise on digital connectedness is proving helpful as staff and administration of the Honors College design a robust and innovative honors experience for their students (see the Q and A on the relevance of Chayko’s research to the covid-19 pandemic in Rutgers Today).

Chayko will also be offering her popular Byrne Seminar on “Selfies and Digital Culture” to Honors College students this fall.

“We will all miss having students on site, but there are still many ways that we can form personal and professional connections and meet our goals,” Chayko noted. “For example, the Honors College will be offering a virtual event on September 11 called ‘Student Leader Brainshare’ in which I will be joining Career Management Specialist Carlos Flores from the School of Management and Labor Relations to help student leaders at Rutgers learn to communicate effectively in virtual teams and to build their professional portfolios.” Interested students can register here for the event.

Chayko’s book Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life will be published in its third edition in Fall 2020 by SAGE Publications. The primer on digital life and society has been adopted in over 60 college courses nationally internationally, and has special relevance at a time in which so much work and teaching must be conducted remotely. See the blog for her book https://superconnectedblog.com/ and her website https://marychayko.com/.

Chayko directs the Digital Communication, Information, and Media (DCIM)  and Gender and Media minors at the School of Communication and Information, and is an affiliate member of the departments of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. In 2019, she received Rutgers’ Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. You can follow her on LinkedIn, on Instagram @Mary.Chayko, and on Twitter @MaryChayko.

View Chayko’s video welcome to Honors College students here.