MacKenzie A. Christensen

MacKenzie A. Christensen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oregon's College of Arts and Sciences. Her research examines intersections of gender, digital technologies, and social structures within family relationships, life course trajectories, and inequality frameworks using mixed-methods approaches.

Her scholarly focus centers on gender dynamics in digital spaces, carceral impacts on intimate relationships, and life course implications of social stratification. Key areas include technology-mediated sexual scripts among young adults, gendered confidence gaps in computing, and the contradictions of motherhood within institutional systems like incarceration. Her methodology integrates quantitative analysis with qualitative depth to capture nuanced social phenomena.

Recent publications reveal consistent thematic threads: the 2025 forthcoming American Sociological Review article analyzes motherhood within carceral systems, while 2023 works in Social Science Research and Criminology document gendered tech confidence disparities and incarceration's marital consequences. The 2021 Sociological Perspectives study examines Tinder's influence on heterosexual scripts, collectively demonstrating how digital infrastructures and institutional forces reshape gendered experiences across life stages.