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Conference Presentations by Alexandra C Klaren

National Communication Association (Forthcoming: Dallas, 2017)

Who was Fred Rogers before he became "Mister Rogers?" Why do everyday Americans, when recollectin... more Who was Fred Rogers before he became "Mister Rogers?" Why do everyday Americans, when recollecting him and his television program, swell with affective expression similar to a kind that emerges when calling to mind a dear, close friend? In this paper, I examine and analyze Fred Rogers' visionary articulations on television, children, and his own foundational experiences in order to provide answers to these questions from a perspective of origins. I identify two critical pathways of experience and meaning-making in the early epochs of Rogers' life that dialogically converged to form the unique and penetrating foundational conversational communication ethos he employs with exceptional success on his televisual creation, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In the first section, "Dialogical Beginnings: Divinity School and the Arsenal Family Center," I examine interviews in which Rogers and others discuss his work as a student of University of Pittsburgh Psychology Professor Margaret McFarland, co-founder of the Arsenal Family Center, a cutting-edge child development research center. I analyze the ways that Arsenal's methods of close observation (of children) and dialogical engagement (with children)

Many viewers of early children’s television decried its “dreadful,” “inane,” “ghastly,” and “sham... more Many viewers of early children’s television decried its “dreadful,” “inane,” “ghastly,” and “shameful” content. As an early practitioner in the new industry, Fred Rogers grew increasingly uncomfortable with the repetitive showcasing of what he called “demeaning behavior,” as exemplified by actors throwing pies at one another. Determined to create a different, more “enlightened” kind of children’s television program, Rogers left the NBC network for the newly developing Pittsburgh community station, WQED. There, while experimenting with programming, earning a master’s degree in divinity, and studying child development psychology under the instruction of Dr. Margaret McFarland and Erik Erikson, Rogers would develop Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN).

This paper examines how, by integrating cutting edge child development theory with traditional Protestant Christian theology, Rogers created a unique social pedagogy that captured the public interest for more than thirty years and transformed the emotional and spiritual lives of many viewers. I argue that through deploying a dynamic, dialogically centered rhetoric of “ethical emotionality,” Rogers made a critical, discursive intervention into the field of television and American culture reaching multiple generations of citizens and broadcasting MRN.

In 1911, Hiram Bingham, a Yale historian and self-proclaimed explorer of Latin America, climbed t... more In 1911, Hiram Bingham, a Yale historian and self-proclaimed explorer of Latin America, climbed the hills of what he believed could be the lost city of the Incas. Led there by an indigenous boy, Bingham, stunned by the ruined city, set up his camera and began photographing—capturing the scene for American audiences. Upon this dazzling encounter ensued the story of the “discovery” of Machu Picchu for the modern world.

Despite months of moving a mule train through the most dangerous and remote trails of the Andes, Bingham, his team of scientists, indigenous guides, and his camera equipment appropriated Machu Picchu with modern technology and assumptions of the past. Having brought together these two worlds that for thousands of years stood mutually unaware of each other, Bingham’s team performed a chapter of Western expansion onto “unknown and untouched” territories and cultures. Such sites would be given new meaning as they were incorporated into the flow of capital and mass communication products that gained both speed and power at the century’s turn.

In this paper, I demonstrate how practices of modernity (i.e. scientific exploration, the “rescue” of an ancient past as a modern commodity, collection/restoration, photographic representation, and the fetishization of history) allowed Bingham to transform his Peruvian travels into a notable public event, in which he presented himself to the world as a heroic explorer of the American nation. In the context of travel literature, Bingham’s book is part of a constitutive aspect of modernity, imperialism, and Western power.

Papers by Alexandra C Klaren

This dissertation seeks to understand the success, significance, and impact of the children’s tel... more This dissertation seeks to understand the success, significance, and impact of the children’s television program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968-2001). It explores the nuanced complexity of Rogers’ thought, the dialogical integration of his various influences, and the intentional ethic of care behind the creation of a program that spoke to the affective, cultural, and educational needs of children (and adults) during a period of cultural and political upheaval in the United States. Despite the program’s longevity and popularity, it has received only scant attention from humanities scholars. The sole monograph to date interprets the program from a pacifist perspective. My dissertation provides the first full-fledged contextualization of the program, its vision and its enactment, as an innovative intervention into the world of children’s television. Delving into the newly available primary documents at the Fred Rogers Archive, I examined and analyzed speeches, notes, scripts, and l...

This thesis argues that in crafting a nuanced stance on 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee Bara... more This thesis argues that in crafting a nuanced stance on 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama's "pro-choice" position, and by bringing to attention other key issues in his platform which coincided with important ethical concerns of Catholic thought, Pittsburgh Catholics for Obama (PCO) made various interventions into a public sphere where positions of progressive Catholics had not been prominently featured during the last decade. In order to understand the phenomenon of PCO both within and beyond its immediate political contexts, this project pursues three frames of inquiry which correspond to the thesis chapters. The first chapter situates PCO within the context of the theoretical issues raised by the debates that have ensued in the last thirty years on the question of religion and the public sphere, and secularism. The second offers a socio-historical perspective that places PCO within the post-Vatican II history of American Catholic political participati...

Communication Quarterly, 2016

From the opening of each Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN) program, Fred Rogers invites his viewe... more From the opening of each Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN) program, Fred Rogers invites his viewers to converse with him. MRN viewer letters demonstrate the efficacy of this call in the familiar and conversational manner in which viewers address the program’s host. This article examines a sample of these letters from the perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogical theorization of the conversational moment—a moment that “provokes an answer, anticipates it, and structures itself in the answer’s direction.” Along with Bakhtin, the dialogical perspectives of Roger Burggraeve, Paulo Freire, and Martin Buber are examined and applied to further elucidate the communication ethics at work in the lettered correspondence and on the television program. MRN viewer letters reveal a remarkable consistency in their thematic quality and constitute a field of study about the dialogical relationship between Rogers and his audience.

From the opening of each Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN) program, Fred Rogers invites his viewe... more From the opening of each Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN) program, Fred Rogers invites his viewers to converse with him. MRN viewer letters demonstrate the efficacy of this call in the familiar and conversational manner in which viewers address the program’s host. This article examines a sample of these letters from the perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogical theorization of the conversational moment—a moment that “provokes an answer, anticipates it, and structures itself in the answer’s direction.” Along with Bakhtin, the dialogical perspectives of Roger Burggraeve, Paulo Freire, and Martin Buber are examined and applied to further elucidate the communication ethics at work in the lettered correspondence and on the television program. MRN viewer letters reveal a remarkable consistency in their thematic quality and constitute a field of study about the dialogical relationship between Rogers and his audience.

This MA thesis argues that in crafting a nuanced stance on 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee B... more This MA thesis argues that in crafting a nuanced stance on 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama’s “pro-choice” position, and by bringing to attention other key issues in his platform which coincided with important ethical concerns of Catholic thought, Pittsburgh Catholics for Obama (PCO) made various interventions into a public sphere where positions of progressive Catholics had not been prominently featured during the last decade. In order to understand the phenomenon of PCO both within and beyond its immediate political contexts, this project pursues three frames of inquiry which correspond to the thesis chapters. The first chapter situates PCO within the context of the theoretical issues raised by the debates that have ensued in the last thirty years on the question of religion and the public sphere, and secularism. The second offers a socio-historical perspective that places PCO within the post-Vatican II history of American Catholic political participation, thought and activism. Finally, the third chapter undertakes an ethnographic account of PCO’s activism in order to provide a description and analysis of the group’s engagement with the public sphere.

The thesis shows that PCO positioned itself at the edge between a separatist Catholic culture and a political culture of the “common good” that seeks alliances and compromises with other political and cultural groups with whom it can share Catholic-informed but not restrictive principles of Catholic social teaching. By bringing together refined methods of grassroots activism in combination with the crafting of thoughtful public arguments that amplify particular tenants of Catholic social teaching, PCO carved out a space in the public sphere where its members could support a “pro-choice” presidential candidate while remaining loyal to Catholic ethical traditions.

Books by Alexandra C Klaren

National Communication Association (Forthcoming: Dallas, 2017)

Who was Fred Rogers before he became "Mister Rogers?" Why do everyday Americans, when recollectin... more Who was Fred Rogers before he became "Mister Rogers?" Why do everyday Americans, when recollecting him and his television program, swell with affective expression similar to a kind that emerges when calling to mind a dear, close friend? In this paper, I examine and analyze Fred Rogers' visionary articulations on television, children, and his own foundational experiences in order to provide answers to these questions from a perspective of origins. I identify two critical pathways of experience and meaning-making in the early epochs of Rogers' life that dialogically converged to form the unique and penetrating foundational conversational communication ethos he employs with exceptional success on his televisual creation, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In the first section, "Dialogical Beginnings: Divinity School and the Arsenal Family Center," I examine interviews in which Rogers and others discuss his work as a student of University of Pittsburgh Psychology Professor Margaret McFarland, co-founder of the Arsenal Family Center, a cutting-edge child development research center. I analyze the ways that Arsenal's methods of close observation (of children) and dialogical engagement (with children)

Many viewers of early children’s television decried its “dreadful,” “inane,” “ghastly,” and “sham... more Many viewers of early children’s television decried its “dreadful,” “inane,” “ghastly,” and “shameful” content. As an early practitioner in the new industry, Fred Rogers grew increasingly uncomfortable with the repetitive showcasing of what he called “demeaning behavior,” as exemplified by actors throwing pies at one another. Determined to create a different, more “enlightened” kind of children’s television program, Rogers left the NBC network for the newly developing Pittsburgh community station, WQED. There, while experimenting with programming, earning a master’s degree in divinity, and studying child development psychology under the instruction of Dr. Margaret McFarland and Erik Erikson, Rogers would develop Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN).

This paper examines how, by integrating cutting edge child development theory with traditional Protestant Christian theology, Rogers created a unique social pedagogy that captured the public interest for more than thirty years and transformed the emotional and spiritual lives of many viewers. I argue that through deploying a dynamic, dialogically centered rhetoric of “ethical emotionality,” Rogers made a critical, discursive intervention into the field of television and American culture reaching multiple generations of citizens and broadcasting MRN.

In 1911, Hiram Bingham, a Yale historian and self-proclaimed explorer of Latin America, climbed t... more In 1911, Hiram Bingham, a Yale historian and self-proclaimed explorer of Latin America, climbed the hills of what he believed could be the lost city of the Incas. Led there by an indigenous boy, Bingham, stunned by the ruined city, set up his camera and began photographing—capturing the scene for American audiences. Upon this dazzling encounter ensued the story of the “discovery” of Machu Picchu for the modern world.

Despite months of moving a mule train through the most dangerous and remote trails of the Andes, Bingham, his team of scientists, indigenous guides, and his camera equipment appropriated Machu Picchu with modern technology and assumptions of the past. Having brought together these two worlds that for thousands of years stood mutually unaware of each other, Bingham’s team performed a chapter of Western expansion onto “unknown and untouched” territories and cultures. Such sites would be given new meaning as they were incorporated into the flow of capital and mass communication products that gained both speed and power at the century’s turn.

In this paper, I demonstrate how practices of modernity (i.e. scientific exploration, the “rescue” of an ancient past as a modern commodity, collection/restoration, photographic representation, and the fetishization of history) allowed Bingham to transform his Peruvian travels into a notable public event, in which he presented himself to the world as a heroic explorer of the American nation. In the context of travel literature, Bingham’s book is part of a constitutive aspect of modernity, imperialism, and Western power.

This dissertation seeks to understand the success, significance, and impact of the children’s tel... more This dissertation seeks to understand the success, significance, and impact of the children’s television program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968-2001). It explores the nuanced complexity of Rogers’ thought, the dialogical integration of his various influences, and the intentional ethic of care behind the creation of a program that spoke to the affective, cultural, and educational needs of children (and adults) during a period of cultural and political upheaval in the United States. Despite the program’s longevity and popularity, it has received only scant attention from humanities scholars. The sole monograph to date interprets the program from a pacifist perspective. My dissertation provides the first full-fledged contextualization of the program, its vision and its enactment, as an innovative intervention into the world of children’s television. Delving into the newly available primary documents at the Fred Rogers Archive, I examined and analyzed speeches, notes, scripts, and l...

This thesis argues that in crafting a nuanced stance on 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee Bara... more This thesis argues that in crafting a nuanced stance on 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama's "pro-choice" position, and by bringing to attention other key issues in his platform which coincided with important ethical concerns of Catholic thought, Pittsburgh Catholics for Obama (PCO) made various interventions into a public sphere where positions of progressive Catholics had not been prominently featured during the last decade. In order to understand the phenomenon of PCO both within and beyond its immediate political contexts, this project pursues three frames of inquiry which correspond to the thesis chapters. The first chapter situates PCO within the context of the theoretical issues raised by the debates that have ensued in the last thirty years on the question of religion and the public sphere, and secularism. The second offers a socio-historical perspective that places PCO within the post-Vatican II history of American Catholic political participati...

Communication Quarterly, 2016

From the opening of each Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN) program, Fred Rogers invites his viewe... more From the opening of each Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN) program, Fred Rogers invites his viewers to converse with him. MRN viewer letters demonstrate the efficacy of this call in the familiar and conversational manner in which viewers address the program’s host. This article examines a sample of these letters from the perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogical theorization of the conversational moment—a moment that “provokes an answer, anticipates it, and structures itself in the answer’s direction.” Along with Bakhtin, the dialogical perspectives of Roger Burggraeve, Paulo Freire, and Martin Buber are examined and applied to further elucidate the communication ethics at work in the lettered correspondence and on the television program. MRN viewer letters reveal a remarkable consistency in their thematic quality and constitute a field of study about the dialogical relationship between Rogers and his audience.

From the opening of each Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN) program, Fred Rogers invites his viewe... more From the opening of each Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN) program, Fred Rogers invites his viewers to converse with him. MRN viewer letters demonstrate the efficacy of this call in the familiar and conversational manner in which viewers address the program’s host. This article examines a sample of these letters from the perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogical theorization of the conversational moment—a moment that “provokes an answer, anticipates it, and structures itself in the answer’s direction.” Along with Bakhtin, the dialogical perspectives of Roger Burggraeve, Paulo Freire, and Martin Buber are examined and applied to further elucidate the communication ethics at work in the lettered correspondence and on the television program. MRN viewer letters reveal a remarkable consistency in their thematic quality and constitute a field of study about the dialogical relationship between Rogers and his audience.

This MA thesis argues that in crafting a nuanced stance on 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee B... more This MA thesis argues that in crafting a nuanced stance on 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama’s “pro-choice” position, and by bringing to attention other key issues in his platform which coincided with important ethical concerns of Catholic thought, Pittsburgh Catholics for Obama (PCO) made various interventions into a public sphere where positions of progressive Catholics had not been prominently featured during the last decade. In order to understand the phenomenon of PCO both within and beyond its immediate political contexts, this project pursues three frames of inquiry which correspond to the thesis chapters. The first chapter situates PCO within the context of the theoretical issues raised by the debates that have ensued in the last thirty years on the question of religion and the public sphere, and secularism. The second offers a socio-historical perspective that places PCO within the post-Vatican II history of American Catholic political participation, thought and activism. Finally, the third chapter undertakes an ethnographic account of PCO’s activism in order to provide a description and analysis of the group’s engagement with the public sphere.

The thesis shows that PCO positioned itself at the edge between a separatist Catholic culture and a political culture of the “common good” that seeks alliances and compromises with other political and cultural groups with whom it can share Catholic-informed but not restrictive principles of Catholic social teaching. By bringing together refined methods of grassroots activism in combination with the crafting of thoughtful public arguments that amplify particular tenants of Catholic social teaching, PCO carved out a space in the public sphere where its members could support a “pro-choice” presidential candidate while remaining loyal to Catholic ethical traditions.