Hey SMC friends and family (and lookyloos!) I’m sharing some personal news—and an invitation. After many (like, many) years at Microsoft Research, working alongside amazing colleagues in the New England Lab, I’ll step away on July 1 to launch a new initiative. For the past five years, I’ve focused on a core gap exacerbating the …
Author: Mary L. Gray
Researcher and activist dedicated to smearing the lines between scholarship and "the real world."
Seeking a Sociotechnical Systems Research Assistant (aka “Pre-Doc”)
Apply here: https://webportalapp.com/sp/login/2025_msr_predoc_sts (NOTE: Application Portal opens February 3, 2025) Deadline: March 3, 2025. (Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.) NOTE: Unfortunately, applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S. to accept the position. Microsoft Research New England is hiring a predoctoral research assistant to work with Nancy Baym, Tarleton Gillespie, and …
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Spike in Online Gig Work: Flash in the Pan or Future of Employment?
By Siddharth Suri and Mary L. Gray Most conventional jobs involve hierarchy. A boss divvies up work to the office’s full-time employees awaiting direction and a green light. While still true for the majority of American workers, a growing number of people are picking up work online — accepting jobs with companies that assign, schedule, route, and …
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Announcing our SMC PhD interns for 2016!!
Well, it was another exciting season of reviewing a rich batch of applications for our 2016 PhD Internship Program. We love reading about all the great work out there but really, really, really hate that we have just a few seats for our intern program. Please spread the word about this program and throw your …
Book release: Queering the Countryside-New Frontiers in Rural Queer Studies
I am happy to announce the release of Queering the Countryside, with exciting contributions by great scholars and edited by Brian J. Gilley, Colin R. Johnson and myself. Find it in NYU Press, or order it from Amazon. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Rural queer experience is often hidden or ignored, and presumed to be alienating, lacking, and incomplete …
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LA Times Op-Ed: Your job is about to get “taskified”
I've got a small Op-Ed from our crowdwork research in the Sunday's Los Angeles Times' print edition, published on January 10th, 2016 . It reflects on the challenges that workers face in a world of “taskified” labor—particularly the problem of getting paid when no one’s legally on the hook for sending you your last paycheck. Full …
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Reminder! MSR Social Media Collective PhD Intern Call, Cycle 2016!
APPLICATION DEADLINE: JANUARY 29, 2016 Microsoft Research New England (MSRNE) is looking for advanced PhD students to join the Social Media Collective (SMC) for its 12-week 2016 Intern Program. The Social Media Collective scholars at MSRNE bring together empirical and critical perspectives to address complex socio-technical issues. Our research agenda draws on a social scientific/humanistic …
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The paradox of automation’s “last mile”
My collaborator, Siddharth Suri, and I have spent nearly 2 years studying a nascent but rapidly expanding piece of the platform economy that we call “crowdwork.” Right now, crowdwork — millions of people around the world working in concert with programmers issuing tasks to an API — fuels automation of the internet. This work requires people to contribute responses, …
Platformation: Greetings from the future of work!
On September 9, 2015, the Data & Society Research Institute hosted Platformation, a one-day summit that brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to discuss platform economies and the labor that fuels them. Participants included platform business leaders, researchers, labor organization representatives, policy experts, and those contributing labor to this growing sector. You can read the full …
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Hello Andrea (SMC’s 2015-16 Research Assistant Extraordinaire!)
As we say goodbye to the *amazzzzing* Rebecca Hoffman <serious sad face emoji>, we have the solace of welcoming Andrea Alarcón to SMC's ranks. Andrea received her MSc degree from the Oxford Internet Institute, and her BSc in online journalism from the University of Florida. She has researched ICT4D, online language barriers and data collection by international corporations in developing nations. …
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Social Media Collective 