Amy Harmon

I am a New York Times reporter covering how shifting conceptions of gender affect everyday life in the United States.

What I Cover

This is a new beat for me as of late 2023, so what I cover will be shaped by what I learn in the coming weeks and months. Right now, I have mostly questions. How does gender affect the way you navigate the world, for better and worse? I’m interested in conflicts over gender and celebrations of it, in personal stories and academic research that might shed new light on how gender shapes our political views and life choices. I’m tracking how different sides of the debates over gender invoke science to back their views. And I’m especially curious about what appears to be a big generational shift in how gender is understood.

My Background

Over more than a decade as a national correspondent with a focus on science, I’ve traveled to different states to report on a variety of topics, including a dispute over genetically modified crops in Hawaii; a family of shrimpers facing down an oil spill in Louisiana; a science teacher in Ohio clashing with students who were brought up to reject climate change. At the outset of the pandemic, I shadowed the epidemiologist for the county in Washington state where the first U.S. case of Covid was identified. As the pandemic wound down, I profiled the strangely uplifting iNaturalist community, where people from all over a politically polarized nation post photographs of living things and politely debate their proper taxonomic classification.

I have received two Pulitzer Prizes, a Guggenheim fellowship, the National Academies of Science journalism award, the Casey Medal for meritorious reporting on children and families, a Society of Environmental Journalists award, and some other nice citations. I started out as the co-Opinion page editor for the University of Michigan’s Michigan Daily, the best student-run college newspaper in the country. My pronouns are she/her.

Journalistic Ethics

All Times journalists are committed to upholding the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. For me, that means approaching subjects with both skepticism and empathy. I don’t give to or take money from advocacy groups. I often spend weeks talking to people and I explain up front that they will get sick of me, but in the end I hope they will feel their story is told with fairness and accuracy.

Please email, DM or text me story ideas and thoughts about our coverage of gender.

• Email: [email protected]

• X: @amy_harmon (DMs open)

• WhatsApp: Email or DM me to get my number

• Signal: Email or DM me to get my number

• Anonymous tips: nytimes.com/tips