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Claire Provost Associate
Our people —
Associate
Claire Provost is an investigative journalist, author and non-profit media innovator whose work is inspired by intersectional feminist theory and practice. She is a co-founder and co-director of the Institute for Journalism and Social Change (IJSC), which is a new transnational ‘learn and do’ initiative bringing together current and future journalists, academics and activists to advance innovation, inclusion and impact in service of journalism’s core social purpose: to support democracy. She is also co-author of the book Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023), which was described as “an act of precious resistance” by Yanis Varoufakis and “a fascinating lesson in economics” by Jayati Ghosh.
Contact Claire Provost
Her journalism – in particular on international financial flows, from foreign aid and investment to the spending of conservative civil society groups – has been published by various mainstream and independent publications, including Al Jazeera, CNN, The Face magazine, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The Independent, In These Times, Mother Jones, and The New York Review of Books. She has testified in front of British and European Parliaments based on her investigations, which have also led to action. In 2023, several international aid donors changed their funding practices following work she led revealing their connections to anti-LGBTQI groups in Uganda backing a new anti-homosexuality law that included the death penalty.
Claire was previously Head of Global Investigations at the independent media outlet openDemocracy, where she built a transnational feminist investigative journalism team and fellowship programme for women and LGBTQI journalists to advance their investigative skills. She was also previously a Fellow at the Centre for Investigative Journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a Data Journalist at The Guardian. Before becoming a journalist, Claire earned a master's degree in Political Science from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, where she was an active member of the Student Labor Action Movement.
Claire is additionally a member of the Advisory Committee for the new global feminist ‘think and do’ tank Noor, and has worked as a consultant for various organisations including Harm Reduction International, the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, and the Small World Stories communications for social change agency. She lives in Turin, Italy.
Areas of expertise
International investment treaties and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS); foreign aid and development finance; conservative civil society including ‘anti-gender’ and far-right organised threats to women’s and LGBTIQ rights, and their finances; critical perspectives on the media and its role in social change, including gender and the media, and corporate communications.
Media experience
In addition to her written publications, Claire has also been a guest on radio shows and podcasts including on the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme and The Intercept’s Deconstructed podcast.
Website
Recent publications
Claire Provost, Colleen Daniels, Gaj Gurung and Catherine Cook, “Aid for the War on Drugs,” Harm Reduction International report (September 2023)
Claire Provost, “Behind Closed Doors: Investigating the System for Settling Investor-State Disputes,” Global Investigative Journalism Network (August 2023)
Claire Provost, “Progressive cash for the anti-LGBTQI backlash? How aid donors and ‘feminist’ governments have funded backers of Uganda’s deadly Anti-Homosexuality Bill”, Institute for Journalism and Social Change report (April 2023)
Claire Provost and Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, “Western aid flowed to churches in Ghana despite years of campaigning against LGBTQI+ rights,” CNN (December 2022)