Videos
Digging into crime data to inform news coverage across beats
Khushboo Ranka is a Mumbai-based filmmaker known for AN INSIGNIFICANT MAN (2016), which became India’s highest-grossing political documentary. It premiered at TIFF, BFI, and over 55 international festivals, winning multiple awards, including the Doc Impact Hi5 Award for its groundbreaking campaign. She co-wrote SHIP OF THESEUS (2012), a philosophical exploration of identity and ethics, which won the National Award for Best Film and was celebrated at numerous international festivals.
Khushboo directed India’s first Virtual Reality Documentary, RIGHT TO PRAY (2016), which premiered at TIFF and Sheffield. She was also editor-in-chief of ElseVR, India’s first VR platform, producing several pioneering VR documentaries. Her first short film, CONTINUUM, won Best Short Film at the Hannover Film Festival. Most recently, she produced WHILE WE WATCHED, a Peabody and Henry Award-winning documentary on journalist Ravish Kumar, which won top awards at TIFF, Sheffield, and Sydney Film Festival.
Beyond filmmaking, she has been actively involved in mobilizing resources for nonfiction storytelling and content. Her latest project is a pulpy, noir-inspired detective series set in a fictional Indian town—a world of crime, rebellion, and shifting power dynamics—that explores autonomy, morality, and tradition in a rapidly changing landscape.
While at Shorenstein, Khushboo will explore how a new generation of creators is turning to digital platforms—particularly YouTube—to tell urgent, investigative, and socially resonant stories.
Videos
Commentary
Center News
Videos
Center News
Center News
Commentary
Videos
Center News
Attend the 2026 Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics with preeminent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Shorenstein Center Director, Nancy Gibbs, will hold a fireside chat with Burns in the JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard Kennedy School.
Event
JFK Jr. Forum, HKS
6:00 PM
Join The Journalist’s Resource for an hourlong webinar on where to find reliable crime data and how to use it responsibly
Event
Zoom webinar
12:00 PM
Nancy Gibbs will moderate a bipartisan panel with Governor Spencer Cox (Republican of Utah) and Congressman Jake Auchincloss (Democrat of Massachusetts) focused on reducing partisanship in our political landscape.
Event
John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, HKS
January 28 - 6:00 PM
Take part in a conversation with the recipients of the 2025 David Nyhan Prizes for Public Policy Journalism, Judd Legum and Samantha Maldonado. The discussion will explore their career accomplishments and the ethos behind their work, including a candid, peer-to-peer exchange between the honorees.
Event
1:00 PM
Join Shorenstein Center Director Nancy Gibbs for a timely and insightful conversation on today’s rapidly shifting media landscape.
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Zoom Webinar
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
For decades, U.S. colleges and universities where at least 25% of undergrads are Hispanic have received federal grants to help them expand educational opportunities and improve graduation rates for Hispanic students. In September, however, the U.S. Department of Education slashed funding for these schools, formally designated as “Hispanic-serving institutions.” Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit making its way through the courts argues that distributing public money to higher education institutions based on their percentage of Hispanic students is discriminatory and violates the U.S. constitution. This free webinar focused on the fate of hundreds of public and private colleges and universities, which, together, serve most of the nation’s Hispanic undergraduate students.
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Zoom webinar
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Next Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Learning Resources v. Trump, a case central to the fate of President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariff regime imposed since he took office in January. Join The Journalist’s Resource and Econofact for an hourlong, on-the-record webinar about the potential economic consequences of the case, important legal arguments, and the history and future of administrative authority in the U.S.
Event
Zoom webinar
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Join us for a wide-ranging conversation on the media and American Politics, with CNN’s chief political correspondent, and anchor of Inside Politics, Dana Bash.
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John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Join the Behavioral Insights Student Group (BISG) in conversation with Judd Kessler on his recently published book, “Lucky By Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want.”
Event
HKS campus, Taubman Building - T-520 Nye B & Zoom
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
In this talk, Professor Lyons will explore the question “Why do older adults engage more with misinformation online, even when they often identify falsehoods correctly in surveys?” This event is part of the Speaker Series on Misinformation, co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University.
Event
Rubenstein Building - R-414-AB David Ellwood Democracy Lab & Zoom
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM