Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern To Join Harvard

Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf said today that former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will be joining Harvard University later this year.

Ms. Ardern, a worldwide leftist hero, has been nominated for two fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School. Beginning this fall, she will be the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and a Hauser Leader in the school’s Center for Public Leadership.

Mr. Elmendorf said in a statement, “Jacinda Ardern showed the world strong and empathetic political leadership”.

He further said, “Ms. Ardern will bring important insights for our students and will generate vital conversations about the public policy choices facing leaders at all levels”.

Ms. Ardern, who was just 37 when she became prime minister in 2017, stunned New Zealanders when she announced in January that she was stepping down from the role after more than 5 years because she no longer had enough in the tank to do it justice.

She was under increasing political pressures at home, especially for her management of the coronavirus pandemic, which was originally hailed but later criticized by those opposed to mandates and rules.

She sees the Harvard opportunity as a chance not only to share her experience with others but also to learn.

Jacinda Ardern said, “As leaders, there’s often very little time for reflection, but reflection is critical if we are to properly support the next generation of leaders”.

Ms. Ardern’s tenure at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university will also involve a stint as the school’s first tech governance leadership fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.

Ms. Ardern described the centre as a key partner in New Zealand’s efforts to combat violent extremism online after a white supremacist shooter killed 51 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch in 2019.

The gunman live-streamed the massacre on Facebook for 17 minutes.

Ms. Ardern launched the Christchurch Call with French President Emmanuel Macron two months after the shooting. The initiative’s purpose is to remove terrorist and violent extremist content from the internet. More than 50 countries joined the initiative, including the United States, Britain, Germany, and South Korea, as well as digital giants such as Facebook parent company Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, YouTube, Zoom, and Twitter.

Ms. Ardern said, “The Center has been an incredibly important partner as we’ve developed the Christchurch Call to action on addressing violent extremism online”.

Ms. Ardern further said that the fellowship will provide an opportunity to work not only collaboratively with the center’s research community, but also on the challenges associated with the growth of generative AI tools.

Co-founder of the Berkman Klein Center, Jonathan Zittrain said, “It’s rare for a head of state to be able to immerse deeply in a complex and fast-moving digital policy issue”.

Mr. Zittrain went on to say, “Jacinda Ardern’s hard-earned expertise, including her ability to bring diverse people and institutions together, will be invaluable as we all search for workable solutions to some of the deepest online problems”.

Ms. Ardern stated that she intended to return to New Zealand following the fellowships.

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