The award ceremony, including a talk on Klein’s book On Fire and an extended Q&A, will be free and open to the public. It will take place at Sever Hall 113 in Harvard Yard (map) at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 26th. For questions contact info@harvardhumanist.org.
Sever Hall
The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard and the Harvard College Community of Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics (HCHAA), along with the American Humanist Association, are delighted to announce that Naomi Klein is the 14th annual winner of our Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award for Humanism in Culture: the ‘Rushdie Award,’ after first winner Sir Salman Rushdie.
Credit: Kourosh Keshiri
Klein currently serves as the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University. An award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and international New York Times bestselling author, Klein’s most recent work, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal, tackles the climate crisis in a novel way. Hailed by critics as a clarion call to courage and ambition, the book is an impassioned and evidence-based plea for a Green New Deal that would avert climate catastrophe while creating a more just and equitable society. Published worldwide in September 2019, the book became an instant New York Times bestseller, and #1 Canadian bestseller.
Among Klein’s many other award-winning books are The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes On the Disaster Capitalists (2018), No Is Not Enough: Resisting the New Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need (2017), This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate (2014), The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (2007), and No Logo (2000). Films based on Klein’s work have been chosen as official and prizewinning selections at leading film festivals around the world.
The student-led committee of members of the Humanist Community at Harvard who selected Klein for this year’s ‘Rushdie Award’ noted the extraordinary depth and breadth of her lifelong work. “Her voice has amplified the crucial political, economic and social actions required for the preservation of our planet,” said Harvard College student and committee member Adelle Goldenberg. “Her writing and advocacy have made an outstanding contribution to the development of secular altruistic communities around the world, including on Harvard’s campus.” Klein will join a list of past awardees including author Anand Giridharadas, Steven Pinker, the late Carrie Fisher, Stephen Fry, and more.