Jacinda Ardern takes up leadership and online extremism roles at Harvard

Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has taken up three new roles at Harvard University, where she will study and speak on leadership, governance and online extremism.

Ardern announced in an Instagram post on Wednesday morning that she was “incredibly humbled” to be joining the university on joint fellowships at the Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, based at Harvard Law School. She will focus on the study of online extremism at the law school, and on building leadership and governance skills at the Kennedy School.

The fellowships will begin in the autumn, and will take Ardern overseas for the period of the New Zealand election in October. Ardern said that “While I’ll be gone for a semester (helpfully the one that falls during the NZ general election!) I’ll be coming back at the end of the fellowships. After all, New Zealand is home!”

Ardern has visited Harvard before: last year, she given an honorary doctorate of law and earned a standing ovation when speaking at Harvard’s commencement on gun control and democracy.

The former prime minister will continue her work on the Christchurch Call – an inter-governmental and tech company pledge she developed after the Christchurch terror attacks to prevent extremist and terrorist content being spread online.

Her time at Harvard will include “time spent studying ways to improve content standards and platform accountability for extremist content online, and examine artificial intelligence governance and algorithmic harms,” the University said in a statement. She will also continue her work on the board of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, which awards five £1m prizes each year for work providing solutions to major environmental problems.

Prof Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of the Berkman Klein Centre, said it was “rare and precious for a head of state to be able to immerse deeply in a complex and fast-moving digital policy issue both during and after their service,” and that “Ardern’s hard-won 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.”

Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf said in a statement that Ardern “showed the world strong and empathetic political leadership”. “She earned respect far beyond the shores of her country, and she will bring important insights for our students and will generate vital conversations about the public policy choices facing leaders at all levels.”

Ardern’s formal titles will be 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow, Hauser Leader in the Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, and Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow, at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, based at Harvard Law School.