Harvard Nieman Foundation Selects 24 Journalists as 2025 Fellows

The Harvard Nieman Foundation for Journalism selected 24 journalists from across the globe to study and teach at Harvard for two semesters, the foundation announced on Friday.

The cohort — who will arrive on campus in the fall — hail from national and local newspapers and work across film, radio, and television. They will study an array of issues, from methods for combating artificial intelligence-generated deep fakes to the proliferation of misinformation and campaigns that aim to suppress free press.

The 2025 fellows include Tyrone Beason, Kyrylo Beskorovainyi, Benjamin Bidder, Lina Chawaf, Nilesh Christopher, Jon Collins, Jesselyn Cook, Diana Durán, Anna Filipova, Bianca Giaever, Ryan Y. Kellet, Elena G. Kostyuchenko, Lasha Kveseladze, Robert Libetti, James Okong’o, Ben Reininga, Sandrine Rigaud, Darcel Rockett, Mike Shum, Gina Smith, Line Vaaben, Marcus Yam, Albee Zhang, and David M. Herszenhorn, the father of The Crimson’s Managing Editor Miles J. Herszenhorn ’25.

Since the fellowship was launched in 1938, the Nieman Foundation has tapped more than 1,700 journalists from 100 countries. During their year in residency, fellows will attend classes across the University, host a series of seminars and workshops for students, and collaborate with Harvard and MIT affiliates, as well as others in the Cambridge area.

Ann Marie Lipinski, the curator of the Nieman Foundation, said in a press release that “this dynamic class offers a portrait of the rapidly shifting contours of journalism as a practice and an industry.”

“They will bring to Harvard innovative ideas for reporting and storytelling and ambitious plans for growing the audience for fact-based journalism,” she added.

Two of the 2025 fellows — Kostyuchenko and Chawaf — are reporting in exile. Kostyuchenko — an exiled Russian journalist for Meduza, the largest Russian news organization in exile — plans to study postcolonialism and folklore and conduct research on death and trauma.

The arriving cohort also includes CEOs and leaders of newsrooms. Beskorovainyi co-founded Kunsht, the first Ukrainian media outlet to cover pop science by publishing articles and hosting podcasts on topics such as nuclear energy research, drones, and AI. Chawaf, one of the two reporters in exile, is the founder and CEO of Radio Rozana, a media network focused on conflict and gender rights in Syria but is based in Paris to avoid retaliation from the Syrian government.

Others have more local reporting roots. Bianca Giaever, a Vermont-based independent filmmaker and radio journalist, plans to study the intersection of religion and climate change. Collins, a senior reporter with Minnesota Public Radio News, plans to investigate the growing economic disparities in the United States and how traditional policing disproportionately targets the poor.

Lipinski emphasized the importance of the fellows’ work as journalism comes “under threat around the globe, often at the hands of governments seeking to silence journalists.”

“Harvard’s long and steadfast commitment to supporting these fellows and their vital role in a democracy remains a bright light,” she added.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Angelina J. Parker can be reached at angelina.parker@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @angelinajparker.