Noelle Chesley

Associate Professor, Sociology
Faculty Affiliate, Women and Gender Studies

Education

PhD, Cornell University
MPA, Syracuse University
BS, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Rufus King High School, Milwaukee, WI

Office Hours

Tuesdays 12:00-2:00pm
Bolton Hall, Office 760

Teaching Schedule

Course Num	Title	Meets	Syllabus
SOCIOL 327-201	Data, Technology, and Society	No Meeting Pattern	Syllabus
SOCIOL 344-001	The Work-Family Intersection	TR 1pm-2:15pm	Syllabus

Courses Taught

SOCIOL 202: Professional Development for Social Science Majors
SOCIOL 260: Blood, Sex, Money Power: The Family and Intimate Relationships
SOCIOL 282: Aging and the Life Course
SOCIOL 327: Data, Technology & Society
SOCIOL 344: The Work-Family Intersection
SOCIOL 361: Research Methods in Sociology
SOCIOL 760: Advanced Statistical Methods in Sociology
SOCIOL 925: Sex and Gender
SOCIOL 927: Seminar in Sociology of Contemporary Institutions: Work and Society
SOCIOL 928: Seminar in Social Organization: Data and Society

Teaching Interests

Dr. Chesley (She/Her) teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate (MA & PhD) levels using both online and in-person instructional methods. She is passionate about providing a rich learning environment for her students and strives to exite them about the possibilities for learning and growth studying sociological topics can foster. She also aims to demonstrate the value of applying sociological thinking to address real-world problems.

Prior to working as a professor, Dr. Chesley worked in a consulting firm where she applied social research methods every day to inform strategic decision-making.

Research Interests

Dr. Chesley is a interdisciplinary social scientist and former department head who is passionate about identifying and solving complex problems at the intersection of data, technology, gender, and inequality. She is a mixed-methods scholar who collects and analyzes survey data and qualitative interview data to address research questions. Chesley was recently recognized as one of the top 2% of researchers internationally in 2024, joining a select group of UWM faculty. The Stanford-Elsevier list is an esteemed ranking that identifies the most cited scholars in their fields. This ranking, derived from Scopus database data, highlights researchers whose work has had a significant impact across various scientific disciplines.

Her current research engages questions about the role of technology, innovation, and automation on work organizations and workers themselves and in family contexts.

Related Activities

Dr. Chesley was selected for UWM's 2023-24 Experiential Learning Teaching Fellowship program. The goal of the program is to impact the career readiness of undergraduate students by fostering greater instructor expertise and practices that can be applied to support the professional development of our students. Experiential Learning Fellows come together to share ideas and to cultivate practices that support infusing professional development into the UWM curriculum.

Public Outreach and Media Interviews

Discussant, 2025. Book launch event discussing Allison Daminger's What's on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life.

Panelist, 2025. Panelist for Women's History Month Panel discussing The Future of Women in the Workplace at Generac.

Milwaukee Film Speaker, 2024. Provided sociological context for viewers of "Coded Bias," a documentary exploring the social implications of automation and algorithms.

Keynote speaker at Homedadcon 2023. Expanding Care: The Benefits to Families (and Society) of Men in Caring Roles, September 2023, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Noelle Chesley on Wisconsin Public Radio discussing the challenges and opportunities faced by today's at-home fathers.

Featured speaker at Wisconsin Workforce Development Conference, 2022. The Great Rejection? Automated Hiring Systems and Worker Shortages, April 2022, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.

Noelle Chesley on how automated hiring systems could be contributing to the worker shortage, National Public Radio, August 2022.

Noelle Chesley on how automated hiring systems are making the worker shortage worse, High Volume Hiring Podcast, August 2022.

Biographical Sketch

Noelle Chesley was raised on Milwaukee's north side and attended Milwaukee Public School's Rufus King International Baccalaureate High School. She believes strongly in the power of public education to positively impact individuals and communities and takes pride in working for an R1 university with an open-access mission.

Selected Publications

Chesley, Noelle. Is Online Forever? Death, Family Dynamics, and Social Media. In: Social Media and Family Dynamics across the Life Course: A Multi-Generational Perspective, Lowry, Deborah S and Tanaka, Kimiko, Eds., (Forthcoming, 2026). Springer Publishing.

Campos-Castillo, Celeste, Chesley, Noelle, & Asan, Onur. Professionals as Change Agents or Instruments of Reproduction? Medical Residents’ Reasoning for Not Sharing the Electronic Health Record Screen with Patients. Future Internet 14.2 (2022):367.

Chesley, Noelle A., Meier, Helen, Luo, Jake, Apchemengich, Immaculate, and Davies, W. Hobart. “Social factors shaing the adoption of lead-filering point-of-use systems: an observational study of an MTurk sample” Journal of Water and Health (2020).

Chesley, Noelle A. “What Does it Mean to be a Breadwinner Mother?” Journal of Family Issues 38.18 (2016): 2594–2619.

Chesley, Noelle A., and Flood, Sarah. “Signs of Change? At-Home and Breadwinner Parents’ Housework and Child Care Time” Journal of Marriage and Family 79.2 (2016): 511-534.

Chesley, Noelle A., and Johnson, Britta. “Technology Use and the New Economy: Work Extension, Network Connectivity, and Employee Distress and Productivity” Research in the Sociology of Work 26. (2015): 61-99.

Chesley, Noelle A. “Information and Communication Technology Use, Work Intensification, and Employee Strain and Distress” Work, Employment, & Society 28.4 (2014): 589-610.

Chesley, Noelle A., and Johnson, Britta. “Information and Communication Technology Use and Social Connectedness over the Life Course” Sociology Compass 8/6. (2014): 589-602.

Chesley, Noelle A., Slibak, Andra, and Wajcman, Judy. “Information and Communication Technology Use and Work-Life Integration” Handbook of work-life integration of professionals: Challenges and opportunities Ed. Major, Debra, and Burke, Ronald. Elgar Publications. (2013): 245-266.

Fonk, James, Davidoff, Donna, Lutzow, Thomas, Chesley, Noelle A., and Mathiowetz , Nancy. “The Effect of Advance Directives on End-of-Life Cost Experience” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 23.3 (2012): 1137-56.

Chesley, Noelle A., and Fox, Briana. “Email Use and its Perceived Effect on Family Relationship Quality: Variation by Gender and Race/Ethnicity” Sociological Focus 45.1 Ed. Mesch, Gustavo. (2012): 1-22.

Chesley, Noelle A. “Stay-at-Home Fathers and Breadwinning Mothers: Gender, Couple Dynamics, and Social Change” Gender & Society, Sage 25.5 (2011): 642-644.

Chesley, Noelle A. “Blurring Boundaries? Linking Technology Use, Spillover, Individual Distress, and Family Satisfaction” Journal of Marriage and Family 67. (2005): 1237-1248.