James Harkin
James Harkin is the director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism.
He is a journalist who covers social change and political conflict and whose work appears in Vanity Fair, Harper’s, GQ, The Smithsonian, Prospect and The Guardian. A former director of talks at the Institute for Contemporary Arts, he once taught politics at Oxford University, and was associate producer on Adam Curtis’ two BBC series The Trap and All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. He’s been reporting on the Syrian conflict from all sides. His last book, Hunting Season, an investigative account of the rise of the Islamic State group and its campaign of kidnapping journalists, was published in November 2015 by Little, Brown in the UK and Hachette in the US.
Summer Conference Event
— Talk Welcome
25 June 2026
Welcome
A welcome to the conference by James Harkin, Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, and Dr Omega Douglas, Head of Journalism and Strategic Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Past courses
Summer Conference Event
— Talk
27 June 2025
Four Rules on How to Survive and Thrive as an Investigative Journalist
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want published; everything else is public relations.” In the same spirit, Martin Tomkinson distils fifty years’ experience as an investigative reporter into four key lessons, and reveals what you really need to succeed in a sometimes perilous profession.
Summer Conference Event
26 June 2025
Welcome
A warm welcome from the CIJ Director James Harkin and from the Convenor MA/MSc Digital Journalism programme at Goldsmiths, University of London Miranda McLachlan.
Symposium Event
— Panel
15 November 2024
All the Conspiracies are True: Speaking Truth to Power in the Age of ‘Disinformation’
How should truth-seeking investigative journalism operate amid the proliferation of conspiracy theories on one side and the rise of a cadre of sometimes censorious “disinformation” experts on the other?
Symposium Event
— Panel
15 November 2024
Are We All Working for the CIA?
Investigative journalism is expensive. As the cost of paying for it moves from the audience to big foundations, many of whom enjoy close relationships with Western states, how does that change the tone and rationale of what we produce?
Director at The Centre for Investigative Journalism