CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who led her country through a devastating mass shooting, will temporarily join Harvard University later this year, the School’s dean said Tuesday. Kennedy, Douglas Elmendorf.
Ardern, a global icon of the left and an inspiration to women around the world, has been named a double fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. She will serve as the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and Hauser Leader in the school’s Center for Public Leadership beginning this fall.
“Jacinda Ardern showed the world strong and empathetic political leadership,” Elmendorf said in a statement, adding that Ardern “will provide important information for our students and spark vital conversations about public policy choices facing leaders at all levels.” .
Ardern, who was just 37 when she became prime minister in 2017, shocked New Zealanders when she announced in January that she was stepping down after more than 5 years because she no longer had «enough in the tank» to do her justice. She was facing mounting political pressure in her own country, including over her handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which was initially praised but later criticized by opponents of the mandates and rules.
She said that she sees the Harvard opportunity as an opportunity not only to share her experience with others, but also to learn.
“As leaders, there is often very little time for reflection, but reflection is critical if we are to properly support the next generation of leaders,” he said.
Ardern’s time at the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts, will also include a stint as the first Technology Governance Leadership Fellow at the school’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
The center has been an important partner as New Zealand worked to confront violent extremism online after a white supremacist killed 51 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch in 2019, Ardern said. The gunman livestreamed the massacre for 17 minutes on Facebook before the video was taken down.
Two months after the shooting, Ardern launched the Christchurch call with French President Emmanuel Macron. The goal of the initiative is to remove terrorist and violent extremist content online.
More than 50 countries have joined the initiative, including the United States, Britain, Germany and South Korea, as well as technology companies such as Facebook’s parent company Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, YouTube, Zoom and Twitter.
«The Center has been an incredibly important partner as we develop the Christchurch Call to Action to address violent extremism online,» Ardern said, adding that the grant will be an opportunity to not only work collaboratively with the center’s research, but also to work on challenges related to the growth of generative AI tools.
Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of the Berkman Klein Center, said it’s rare that a head of state can take a deep dive into a fast-moving and complex digital policy issue.
«Jacinda Ardern’s hard-earned experience, including her ability to bring diverse individuals and institutions together, will prove invaluable as we all search for viable solutions to some of the deepest problems online,» she said in a statement.
Ardern said that he planned to return to New Zealand after the fellowships.