MacKenzie received her A.A. in Liberal Arts from Spokane Falls Community College in 2013, her B.A. in Sociology from Washington State University Vancouver in 2015, her M.S. in Sociology from Portland State University in 2018, her M.A. in Demographic and Social Analysis from the University of California Irvine in 2022, and her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California Irvine in 2024. She joined the faculty at the University of Oregon in 2024. 

Her research examines the role of digital technologies–both within the United States and cross-nationally–in shaping gender inequality across the life course. She approaches these issues using a range of methodologies, including latent class analysis, meta-analysis, and in-depth interviews, and by drawing on data that spans national and cultural contexts. Her work has been published in journals such as Social Science Research, Criminology, and Journal of Family Issues.

Christensen, MacKenzie A., Kristin Turney, and Suyeon Jang. “The Carceral Contradictions of Motherhood.” Forthcoming at the American Sociological Review.

Christensen, MacKenzie A. 2023. “Tracing the Gendered Confidence Gap in Computing: A Cross-National Meta-Analysis of Gender Differences in Self-Assessed Tech Ability.” Social Science Research 111:1-16.

Turney, Kristin, Katelyn Malae, MacKenzie A. Christensen, and Sarah Halpern-Meekin. 2023. “‘Even Though We’re Married, I’m Single’: The Meaning of Incarceration in Romantic Relationships.” Criminology 61(4):795-822

Christensen, MacKenzie A. 2021. “‘Tindersluts’ & ‘Tinderellas:’ Examining the Digital Affordances Shaping the (Hetero)Sexual Scripts of Young Womxn on Tinder.” Sociological Perspectives 64(3):432-449.