The Shorenstein Center

Cristine Russell

Freelance Science Journalist;Former Senior Fellow, ENRP, Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs, HKS

Shorenstein Advisory Board Member

Cristine Russell is an award-winning freelance journalist who has written about science, health and the environment, particularly climate change, for four decades. She is a former Senior Fellow (2006-2024) at HKS’ Environment & Natural Resources Program who has worked with the Arctic Initiative and is also a former HKS Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy. 

Russell has written for Columbia Journalism Review, Scientific American, the Atlantic, Undark, Science News, Arctic Today and other publications. Earlier she was a national science reporter for The Washington Post and The Washington Star. She is active in efforts to improve international science journalism and communication to the general public about controversies in science. At HKS, Russell has organized speaker series on Climate, Energy and the Media. She is a current member of the HKS Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy Board and was a Spring 2006 Shorenstein Fellow. 

Russell is past President of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW) and of the National Association of Science Writers and currently serves on the CASW executive committee. In 2020, Russell was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is an honorary member of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

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Impacts of Perceived Misinformation Exposure During Elections and Peer-to-Peer Transmission of Misinformation

Impacts of Perceived Misinformation Exposure During Elections and Peer-to-Peer Transmission of Misinformation

Toby Prike will cover two studies examining the impacts of perceived misinformation exposure on trust, democratic attitudes, and polarization, and present findings from an experiment examining the peer-to-peer transmission of misinformation. 

Event

Zoom webinar
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET

Graphic for the “MISINFO Speaker Series” featuring large white text on a pixelated purple background, with logos for Northeastern University’s Institute for Information, the Internet & Democracy and Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center.
What Do You Want to Be Known For? Authoring Your Public Identity with the Press, Social Media and AI

What Do You Want to Be Known For? Authoring Your Public Identity with the Press, Social Media and AI

Want to do something big in the world? Hard to do that if no one knows who you are. Or worse, if what they know is wrong! This workshop will teach you how to effectively tell your story publicly. Taught by Julia Allison, fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics & Public Policy. This workshop is for Harvard ID holders only.

Event

HKS Campus (Room announced to accepted participants)
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM ET

Promotional graphic featuring a smiling woman with long dark brown hair, wearing a white button-down shirt and white pants, seated against a dark blue background. Pale pink text reads “What Do You Want to Be Known For? Authoring Your Public Identity with the Press, Social Media and AI.
How falling immigration affects the U.S. economy

How falling immigration affects the U.S. economy

U.S. migration is projected to plummet by 2.4 million people between 2024 and 2026. Join The Journalist’s Resource, Econofact, and It Turns Out for a live expert panel exploring the consequences for the economy, industries, and families.

Event

Zoom webinar
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET

photo by Greg Bulla of The Mexican-American border, with some construction still ongoing on the American side with host logos overlayed
Creator Nationalism: Platforms, Politics, and Influence

Creator Nationalism: Platforms, Politics, and Influence

Join Shorenstein Center Fellow and USC Annenberg Professor David Craig for a discussion of his forthcoming book, Creator Nationalism: Platforms, Politics, and Influence, exploring how social media creators and influencers figure prominently in the construction, imagination, commercialization, and contestation of nationalism around the world.

Event

HKS Campus, 15 Eliot St., Taubman Building, Room T-520 NYE & Zoom
2:30 PM ET

Event graphic for “Creator Nationalism: Platforms, Politics, and Influence,” featuring David Craig of USC Annenberg and Tanner Mirrlees of Ontario Tech, with a collage of content creators, smartphones, cityscapes, mountains, and crowds against a dark navy background.
Gurus, Hucksters, Entertainers: How Influencers Reshaped Social Media

Gurus, Hucksters, Entertainers: How Influencers Reshaped Social Media

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with influencers as varied as vegan YouTubers, dads of Instagram, and drama commentators, Angèle Christin will demystify the content creator economy, explaining its history and the pitfalls of its professionalization.

Event

HKS campus, Wexner Building, Room W-434 A.B. & Zoom
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Headshot of a woman with dark brown hair wearing a black blazer, alongside the book cover of Gurus, Hucksters, Entertainers: How Influencers Reshaped Social Media by Angèle Christin, featuring colorful neon lettering on a black background.
Framing Power: A Feminist Debrief of the 2026 Midterms

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Event

HKS Campus, 15 Eliot St., Taubman Building, Room T-520 NYE
5:30 PM ET

Promotional graphic for “Framing Power: A Feminist Debrief of the 2026 Midterms,” featuring a portrait of Ali Vitali on the left and a photograph of Azza Cohen filming beside a United States government aircraft on the right.
The Diplomat: On Screen and in the World with Keri Russell, Debora Cahn, & Amb. Samantha Power

The Diplomat: On Screen and in the World with Keri Russell, Debora Cahn, & Amb. Samantha Power

Explore how “The Diplomat” brings the work of diplomacy to life, the people and experiences that shape the series, and what the show can reveal about the practice of diplomacy in a period of profound geopolitical change.

Event

JFK Jr. Forum, 79 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge, MA 02138
October 26 - 6:00 PM ET

Promotional graphic for the Harvard Kennedy School JFK Jr. Forum event “The Diplomat: On Screen and in the World,” featuring Keri Russell, Debora Cahn, and Ambassador Samantha Power, moderated by Nancy Gibbs. The event takes place Monday, October 26, 2026, at 6 p.m. ET, in person and livestreamed. Co-hosted by the Institute of Politics, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
Level Up: Why hierarchies are broken and how to fix them

Level Up: Why hierarchies are broken and how to fix them

Join BISG for an interactive book talk with Stanford Professor Nir Halevy to learn practical ways to navigate workplace hierarchies and build healthier organizations.

Event

Harvard Campus, Wexner Building, Room W-G02
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET

image of book cover and headshots of Nir Halevy and Julian Zlatev
The Press and the President ft. Don Lemon & Chris Whipple

The Press and the President ft. Don Lemon & Chris Whipple

Media access to the White House has become an increasingly important topic of discussion ahead of the midterm elections. To break this down, we welcome Don Lemon, an award-winning journalist who spent thirty years at CNN, NBC, and MSNBC before leaving network television to build his own media company, along with Fall 2026 IOP Resident Fellow Chris Whipple.

Event

JFK Jr. Forum
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM ET

Graphic promoting “The Press and the President,” featuring photos of Don Lemon and moderator Chris Whipple.