Mary Climbs In: The Journeys of Bruce Springsteen's Women Fans

Bruce Springsteen’s relationship with his home state of New Jersey has a central place in his legendary career. In 2025, fans and the music world celebrated the 50th anniversary of Born to Run, a record built on escape yet Springsteen remained close to home and forever associated with New Jersey. Please join us as authors Lorraine Mangione and Donna Luff, longtime Springsteen fans, apply their backgrounds in psychology and sociology to delve into the experiences and meaning of Springsteen’s work in the lives of his women fans through two large, international surveys. Their talk will focus on the perspectives of Springsteen’s women fans from New Jersey, as well as perceptions of New Jersey and its place in Springsteen’s music among fans from other states and countries.

Lorraine Mangione is a psychologist in the Department of Clinical Psychology at Antioch University New England in Keene, NH. She has a long history of interest in creativity and art, and their effect on both creators and those who appreciate art, starting with her dissertation. Her first professional article on Springsteen looked at the transformative power of relationships in his work, which has carried throughout the years, including in our co-authored book Mary Climbs In: The Journeys of Bruce Springsteen’s Women Fans. Her own journey began in the late 1970’s, with family ties to New York and New Jersey adding to her fandom.

Donna Luff is a British-born writer and educator who now lives in Massachusetts. She works as an educator at Boston Children’s Hospital and on faculty at Harvard Medical School. With Lorraine, Donna is co-author of the book Mary Climbs In: The Journeys of Bruce Springsteen’s Women Fans (Rutgers University Press, 2023). Her first published writings about Springsteen included a personal essay about her relationship to the Jersey Shore and status, bestowed on her by New Jerseyans friends, as an “honorary Jersey girl.”

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