Nancy Baym‘s fascination with social dimensions of communication technology began in 1990, when, during the first season of Twin Peaks, she learned of a lively discussion about who killed Laura on this newfangled thing called the internet (rec.arts.tv.twinpeaks). Nancy’s written many widely-cited articles about online community, fandom, and the intersections between on and offline social life , and also a book Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community (Sage Press, Inc.). Her work has been translated into several languages. She is an Associate Professor in Communication Studies at the University of Kansas, where she is an award-winning teacher on topics including the use of new communication technologies in creating identities, relationships and communities, interpersonal communication, and qualitative research methods. She is a co-founder and Past-President of the Association of Internet Researchers, an international interdisciplinary association, and serves on the editorial boards of the premiere journals in the field, including New Media & Society, The Journal of Communication, The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and The Information Society.

On the side, she listens to a lot of pop music, contributes record reviews and occasional mp3s to the Scandinavian music webzine It’s a Trap, and sometimes writes about music in her last.fm journal.

Here are some handy links to Nancy’s University of Kansas homepage, a list of her publications, and links to media appearances. You can find links to longer writings she’s published online through that aptly-titled “longer writings” link on the right.