Nancy Baym

Sr. Principal Researcher, Social Media Collective

Microsoft Research New England

Nancy Baym (Ph.D. Speech Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1994) is a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and a Research Affiliate in Comparative Media Studies/Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research concerns social dynamics of new communication technologies. She is the author of Twitter: A Biography (co-authored with Jean Burgess, forthcoming 2020, NYU), Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection (2018, NYU), Personal Connections in the Digital Age (2010, Second Edition 2014, Polity), Internet Inquiry: Conversations About Method (co-edited with Annette Markham, 2010, Sage), and Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom and Online Community (2000, Sage). She has written numerous journal articles and book chapters and serves on the editorial boards of New Media & Society, The Information Society, Social Media & Society, and other journals. She was a co-founder of the Association of Internet Researchers and served as its second president. She has been recognized with the Frederick Williams Prize for Contributions to the Study of Communication and Technology awarded by the International Communication Association, the naming of the Nancy Baym Book Award by the Association of Internet Researchers, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Gothenburg.