Nathan Wright is Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at Bryn Mawr College. As a sociologist of culture, his research focuses especially on the relationship between cultural change and cultural persistence, with emphases primarily on religion, popular music, literature, regionalism, and public opinion. A lifelong obsessive music fan, he teaches a Sociology of Popular Music course, has brought popular musicians to campus both in and out of the classroom, has done a radio show for the Bi-Co radio station, and is excited to see the Hepburn Medal awarded to a musician this year.

Susan Gregory Thomas is a writer, journalist, and author of In Spite of Everything: A Memoir (Random House: 2011) and Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds (Houghton Mifflin: 2007). A founding producer of Time Inc.’s first website and former senior editor of US News & World Report, Thomas has written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Marie Claire, The Washington Post, Time, MSNBC.com, Glamour, Philadelphia Magazine and has been a guest commentator on CNN, NBC, CBS, NPR, and more. An avid blogger, Thomas graduated from Columbia College in New York, with the English Department award for critical writing. She lives in Philadelphia with her three children.

Laura Reeve is a Bryn Mawr senior studying English and Creative Writing. She also works part-time as a program assistant at Girls Rock Philly, a local music and mentoring organization dedicated to empowering girls and young women through music education and other creative activities. On campus she has been a part of Bryn Mawr’s feminist newspaper, the college news, and the literary magazine, Kaleidoscope. In her spare time she attends punk shows in West Philly basements.

Alyssa Banotai is the Digital Media Editor in the Bryn Mawr College Communications Office. She received an M.A. in English Literature from Rosemont College and a B.A. in Print Journalism from Hofstra University. She discovered Patti Smith’s music and writing in high school and was thrilled to see Smith live at, of all places, Lollapalooza 2007 in Chicago.

Director of College Communications Tracy Kellmer is excited to be a part of the Patti Smith Just Kids Book Club Blog in the role of emcee, commenter, and comment moderator. Questions about the blog may be addressed to her at tkellmer[at]brynmawr[dot]edu.