Joining the incoming class of Honors Affiliated Faculty from the College of Liberal Arts is Dr. Alison Baren, who has served as an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at CLA since 2017. Dr. Baren earned a Ph.D. in Psychology at The Graduate Center in New York City. She specializes in teaching the science of psychology and courses focused on human relationships. In addition to teaching, Dr. Baren works with General Education as the Course Coordinator for “Human Sexuality”, serves on the Undergraduate Psychology and Neuroscience Committee, and is a Faculty Accessibility Partner with the Center for the Advancement of Teaching. When she is not teaching, she is spending time with her family and listening to audiobooks (she is always seeking recommendations).  

Why Temple Honors?

Since coming to Temple in 2017, Professor Baren has been inspired by the drive, passion, and engagement Temple Honors students have demonstrated in their studies. “I love these honors students. I love the community,” Baren said, “I love how curious everybody is, I love how open, hardworking, [they] all are.” It is this different attitude that Baren feels makes working at Temple so special, unique, and rewarding for faculty, and what drew her to collaborating more closely with them. “They are more professional… It’s the little things,” Baren said, “You know, when they call out of class, they email out. That alone is such a nice, refreshing change, you can tell that [these students] are motivated by actually a desire to learn, rather than… getting a grade.”

Professor Baren also was drawn to the Honors Spaces, such as the Lounge and the Huddle, and the prospect of holding regular office hours in these spaces. “I guess the tipping point for me was that last semester, I finally found a time to hold an office hour in the Lounge,” Dr. Baren said, “and I was able to start talking to Amanda [Neuber], and get familiar with her staff”. From those conversations, the pair decided to begin running an Honors Foundations of Social Psychology section in Spring 2026. “At the same time, this call for the Honors-Affiliated Faculty came out, and I sort of had been hankering for something new,” Baren said, describing the opportunity as being one she was “so, so happy to take on.”

Goals And Plans whilst at Temple Honors

During her tenure at Temple Honors, Professor Baren aims to further develop the psychology offerings for Honors students. Given her position as Course Coordinator for Human Sexuality, Baren hopes to expand course offerings in this area, as well as pushing into the territory of exploring relationship psychology, the psychology and science of love, and other areas, such as the cognition of attraction. “I was so glad that the Honors-affiliated faculty position was also the opportunity to propose this new love and relationships course,” Baren said, “The idea is students could take Human Sexuality at the Gen Ed level, then straight into a 2000 level Social Psychology course, and then a 3000 level “Love and Relationships” Honors Special Topics course.” Baren hopes that these courses, and other programs like them, can become a reality in the next few years through the Honors-affiliated faculty program.