Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday that she planned to attend Havard University for fellowships later this year.
Ardern startled New Zealanders in January when she announced her resignation as prime minister after five years in office, citing a lack of “enough in the tank.”
She intends to spend a semester at the prestigious institution in Massachusetts.
“I’m incredibly humbled to be invited to join Harvard University later this year as 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and as a Hauser Leader in the Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership,” Ardern wrote on Instagram.
She will also take up a technology fellowship to “work on the challenges around the growth of generative AI tools”.
Ardern’s position, according to Harvard professor Jonathan Zittrain, is a “rare and precious” opportunity for an ex-head of state “to immerse deeply in a complex and fast-moving digital policy issue.”
The former prime minister did not provide precise dates for her visit to Harvard, but she did say she will be there “for a semester — fortunately, the one that falls during the NZ general election” on October 14.
“I’ll be coming back at the end of the fellowships. After all, New Zealand is home,” Ardern added.
After quitting parliament, she announced last month that she will take on two new roles: a volunteer post as special envoy for the Christchurch Call, a nonprofit combating violent extremism online, and trustee of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.
