Mary Beth Ray

Dr. Mary Beth Ray, director of the Philip Rauch Center for Business Communication and teaching associate professor, joined Lehigh University after more than a decade at Plymouth State University, where she chaired the Communication and Media Studies Department as an associate professor. Dr. Ray holds a Ph.D. from Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication and an M.A. from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communication. Her research and teaching interests include the sociocultural implications of digital communication technologies, mediated communication, and popular music consumption. Dr. Ray is the author of Digital Connectivity and Music Culture: Artists and Accomplices (2017) and editor of Essays on Music, Adolescence, and Identity: The Adolescentia Project (2024). She co-authored “Beyond Technology: Calling for Critical Inquiry on the Cultural Impact(s) of the Internet” (2020) in Computers in Human Behavior and is co-curator of The Adolescentia Project: Digital Archive. Her research can also be found in Rock Brands: Selling Sound in a Media Saturated Culture (2010) and Consumer Identities: Agency, Media, and Digital Culture (2019). Dr. Ray’s work has been featured in the media, including the BBC News, Fox 29, The Union Leader, and The Philly Voice.

Education

• Drexel University, B.S.
• Syracuse University, M.A.
• Temple University, Ph.D.

Research Interests

• Mediated communication  
• Digital technology & culture
• Music streaming & consumption