About Me

I am an Assistant Professor in the Information Technology, Analytics, and Operations Department (and, by curtesy, Sociology) at the University of Notre Dame.

My current research is focused on social spillovers – the impact of one interaction on downstream connections – which I approach from three distinct but interconnected areas: human-robot interactions, social networks, and stratification (see research for details). I am interested in how a primary interaction can affect downstream social relationships, especially in the context of an increasingly digital world. I use quantitative methods and typically use experimental data.

Teaching is very important to me. My students, and their learning, is one of the most fulfilling and precious aspects of life as a scholar. My teaching focuses on network science methods, through I have taught other courses in the social determinants of health and general quantitative methods (see teaching for details). 

You can contact me by email at margaret [dot] traeger [at] nd [dot] edu or by phone at 574-631-9088. My office is room 225Q Mendoza College of Business. You can find my google scholar page here and my CV here. (Links to my papers can be found here.)

Prior to Notre Dame, I earned a Bachelor's of Science in Biology, with minors in Global Health and Women's Studies, from the University of Wisconsin, a Master's of Public Health, with a concentration in Health Communication, from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Sociology from Yale University, where my primary research home was in the Human Nature Lab of the Yale Institute for Network Science. 

In any free-time outside of work, I enjoy spending time with loved ones, reading non-fiction, practicing the piano, and pilates.