Professor

About

  • Find Me On:

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  • Role

    Faculty

  • Position

    • Professor
    • Director of Faculty Retention and Success

  • Concentration

    • Digital technologies
    • Identity and inclusion
    • Games and learning
    • Virtual worlds
    • Information design
    • Generative AI

  • Department

    • CLA Dean's Office and Journalism & Media Communication

  • Education

    • Ph.D., Communication, Annenberg School for Communication
    • Master of Arts, Regional Science, University of Pennsylvania

  • Curriculum Vitae:

Biography

Dr. Martey received her doctorate from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, from which she also holds a Masters of Science in regional economics. She is a 2025-2026 Fulbright Fellow, teaching and conducting research at the University of Bergen in Norway. Dr. Martey's research focuses on social interaction and identity in online contexts, from virtual worlds and multiplayer games (MMOs), to social media and generative AI. She examines ways that identities emerge in such spaces, including gender, racial, and sexual identities. She also studies information design and meaning-making, especially in the context of online visual information. Her work uses a range of methods, including critical-cultural examinations, qualitative interviews and observational studies, and quantitative surveys.

Her current research examines identity and generative AI in educational and creative contexts. She recently worked with colleagues from computer science and psychology on a funded project that developed a mini-game to examine decision-making in cybersecurity contexts. Other past projects include a federally funded study examining communication and behavior in custom-built games in Second Life and in World of Warcraft; a project designing and experimentally examining features of an educational game that trains people to minimize reliance on cognitive biases; and a project developing an online tool to support complex, collaborative decision-making.

Dr. Martey teaches several graduate courses on theories of digital technologies, digital data collection methods, and information design. She also teaches undergraduate courses in technology and society, multiculturalism, and the department capstone.

Publications

Selected Publications:

Martey, R.M. (2023). Media matters: A practitioner’s guide to representing perspectives, identities, and diversity, 2nd edition [Booklet]. Fort Collins, CO: Department of Journalism and Media Communication, Colorado State University.

Martey, R.M. (2023). Identity. In M.J.P. Wolf and B. Perron (Eds.), The Routledge companion to video game studies, 2nd edition. Routledge.

Martey, R.M. (2022). The Sims 4. In D. Arsenault, K. Boudreau, B. Perron and M.J.P. Wolf (Eds.), Fifty key video games. Routledge.

Banks, J. & Martey, R.M. (2018). Coping with [r]evolution in online games: Vulnerability and resilience responses to perceived risk in MMO game expansions. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 62, 269-286. doi: 10.1080/08838151.2018.1451852

Martey, R.M., Shaw, A., Stromer-Galley, J., Kenski, K., Clegg, B., Folkestad, J., Saulnier, T., & Strzalkowski, T. (2017). Testing the power of game lessons: The effects of art and narrative on reducing cognitive bias. International Journal of Communication, 17, 1635-1660.

Martey, R.M., Stromer-Galley, J., Shaw, A. McKernan, B. Saulnier, T., McLaren, E., Rhodes, M., Folkestad, J., Taylor, S., Kenski, K., Clegg, B., & Strzalkowski, T. (2017). Balancing play and formal learning in the design of serious games. Games & Culture, 12, 269-291. doi: 10.1177/1555412016674809.

Banks, J., & Martey, R.M. (2016). Put on your game face: Designing researcher presence in studies of virtual worlds. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 9(1). [no pagination]. doi: 10.4101/ jvwr.v9i1.7180

Shaw, A., Kenski, K., Stromer-Galley, J., Martey, R.M., Clegg, B., Lewis, J., Folkestad, J. & Strzalkowski, T. (2016). Serious efforts at bias reduction: The effects of digital games and avatar customization on three cognitive biases. Journal of Media Psychology,. doi: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000174.

McKernan, B., Martey, R.M., Stromer-Galley, J., Kenski, K., & Folkestad, J. (2015). We don’t need no stinkin’ badges: The impact of reward features and feeling rewarded in educational games. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 299–306. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.028.

Martey, R.M., Stromer-Galley, J. Consalvo, M., Wu, J., Banks, J., & Strzalkowski, T. (2015). Communicating age in Second Life: The contributions of textual and visual factors. New Media & Society, 17, 41-61.

Clegg, B. A., Martey, R.M., Stromer-Galley, J., Kenski, K., Saulnier, T., Folkestad, J. E., McLaren, E., Shaw, A., Lewis, J. E., Patterson, J. D., & Strzalkowski, T. (2014). Game-based training to mitigate three forms of cognitive bias. Proceedings of Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), 14180, 1-12.

Martey, R.M., Stromer-Galley, J., Banks, J., Wu, J., & Consalvo, M. (2014) The strategic female: gender-switching and player behavior in online games. Information, Communication & Society, 17, 286-300.