Agora Speaker Series: On Becoming Neighbors: The Communication Ethics of Fred Rogers

Recording of this event can be found here

Alexandra C. Klarén is a graduate of PITT's doctoral program in Communication (2016) and Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. On Becoming Neighbors: The Communication Ethics of Fred Rogers was born from her dissertation work on the rhetorics Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In this highly original book, Klarén shows how Rogers captured the moral, social, and emotional imaginations of multiple generations of Americans. She explores the nuanced complexity of the thought behind the man and the program, the dialogical integration of his various influences, and the intentional ethic of care behind the creation of a program that spoke to the affective, socio-cultural, and educational needs of children (and adults) during a period of cultural upheaval. Richly informed by newly available archival materials, On Becoming Neighbors chronicles the evolution of Rogers’ thought on television, children, pedagogy, and the family through a rhetorical, cultural, and ethical lens. Klarén probes how Rogers creates the conditions for dialogue in which participants explore possibilities and questions relating to the social and material world.

Click here for the publisher's book display.

Click here for the Amazon listing.