Bio
Mary L. Gray studied anthropology before receiving her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California at San Diego in 2004. She draws on this interdisciplinary background to study how people use digital and social media in everyday ways to shape their social identities and create spaces for themselves. Mary’s most recent book, Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America (NYU Press), examined how young people negotiate and express their lesbian, gay, bi, and transgender identities in rural parts of the United States and the role that media, particularly the internet, play in their lives and political work. She served on the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association from 2008 until 2010, recently held a seat on that Association’s Committee on Public Policy, and will chair the Executive Program Committee for the 2014 AAA Annual Meetings in Washington D.C. Mary is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, New England Lab. She maintains an appointment as Associate Professor of Communication and Culture at Indiana University, with adjunct positions in American Studies, Anthropology, and Gender Studies.