Alexandra C. Klarén, PhD

Alexandra Castro Klarén, PhD, joined the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in 2016. She has expertise in the areas of communication and rhetoric, media and culture, moral anthropology and ethics. Dr. Klarén’s research and teaching interests are rooted in the study of culture, communication, and ethics. She is primarily interested in understanding the ways that value systems and identities are constituted by and through the media and other prominent social institutions. Her book, On Becoming Neighbors: The Communication Ethics of Fred Rogers was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in October 2019.

Education

• Ph. D, Communication, University of Pittsburgh
• MA, Religious Studies, University of Pittsburgh
• MA, Writing, Johns Hopkins University
• BA, Liberal Arts, Sarah Lawrence College

Research

Selected publications

• On Becoming Neighbors: The Communication Ethics of Fred Rogers. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019.
• “‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor:’ Intergenerational Dialogics in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Viewer Mail,” Communication Quarterly 65.1 (Jan. 2017): 60–79.

Teaching

Current

• Business Leadership and Human Values
• Business Communication

Honors and distinctions

• 2020 Top Single-Author Book of the Year, Communication Ethics Division, National Communication Association
• 2019 Teaching Innovation Fund Award, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, with Dr. Christina S. Black
• 2018 Dean’s Award for Faculty Excellence, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
• 2018 Winner, Ten By Twenty Challenge: Ideas Bridging Divides, “Bridging Divides Through Storytelling” with April Foiles, Johns Hopkins University Idea Lab Challenge, Baltimore, MD
• 2018 Teaching Innovation Fund Award, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, with Drs. Steven D. Cohen and Brandon Chicotsky
• 2017 Top Paper Award, “Becoming Dialogical: An Inquiry Into the Communication Ethics Origins of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” Communication Ethics Division, National Communication Association 103rd Annual Convention, Dallas, Texas
• 2016 PhD Cultural Studies Certificate, University of Pittsburgh
• 2010-13 Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh
• 2012 Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and The Grable Foundation
• 2010-11 Diversity Fellowship for Graduate Student Research, University of Pittsburgh, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
• 2009 Outstanding Paper Award, Ninth Annual Arts and Sciences Grad Expo, University of Pittsburgh

In the media

• Alexandra C. Klaren, "The Philosophy of Fred," interview by Sheilah Kast and Melissa Gerr, On Point, 88.1 WYPR FM, Baltimore, MD, December 13, 2019. 
• Dale Krieger, "A Neighborhood of Beautiful Days," Johns Hopkins Magazine, Fall 2018, 32.
• Alexandra C. Klaren, "A beautiful day for a neighbor: On the enduring appeal of 'Mister Rogers Neighborhood,'" interview by Patrick Ercolano, The HUB, Johns Hopkins University Office of Communications News Center, June 19, 2018.