CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who led her nation via a devastating mass taking pictures, will probably be briefly becoming a member of Harvard University later this yr, Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf mentioned Tuesday.
Ardern, an international icon of the left and an inspiration to ladies around the globe, has been appointed to twin fellowships on the Harvard Kennedy School. She will function the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and a Hauser Leader within the college’s Center for Public Leadership starting this autumn.
“Jacinda Ardern showed the world strong and empathetic political leadership,” Elmendorf mentioned in observation, including that Ardern will “bring important insights for our students and will generate vital conversations about the 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 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 facing mounting political pressures at home, including for her handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which was initially widely lauded but later criticized by those opposed to mandates and rules.
She said she sees the Harvard opportunity as a chance not only to share her experience with others, but also to learn.
“As leaders, there’s incessantly little or no time for mirrored image, however mirrored image is important if we’re to correctly improve the following era of leaders,” she mentioned.
Ardern’s time on the Cambridge, Massachusetts, college can even come with a stint as the primary tech governance management fellow on the college’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.
The middle has been crucial spouse as New Zealand labored to confront violent extremism on-line after a white supremacist gunman killed 51 other folks at two mosques within the town of Christchurch in 2019, Ardern mentioned. The gunman livestreamed the slaughter for 17 mins on Facebook earlier than the video was once taken down.
Two months after the taking pictures, Ardern introduced the Christchurch Call with French President Emmanuel Macron. The initiative’s purpose is to do away with terrorist and violent extremist content material on-line.
More than 50 nations joined the initiative, together with the United States, Britain, Germany and South Korea, in addition to era firms like Facebook guardian corporate Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, YouTube, Zoom and Twitter.
“The Center has been an incredibly important partner as we’ve developed the Christchurch Call to action on addressing violent extremism online,” Ardern mentioned, including that the fellowship will probably be a possibility no longer handiest to paintings collaboratively with the middle’s analysis group, but additionally to paintings at the demanding situations across the enlargement of generative AI equipment.
Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of the Berkman Klein Center, mentioned it is uncommon for a head of state to be in a position to immerse deeply in a fancy and fast-moving virtual coverage factor.
“Jacinda Ardern’s hard-won experience — together with her skill to convey various other folks and establishments in combination — will probably be priceless as all of us seek for workable answers to probably the most private on-line issues,” he said in a statement.
Ardern said she planned to return to New Zealand after the fellowships.
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Associated Press author Nick Perry contributed from Wellington, New Zealand.
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