Diana Kruzman

My name is Diana Kruzman, and I’m a freelance writer.

I’ve reported from Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as around the United States, for The Baffler, Foreign Policy, MIT Technology Review, The Intercept, New Lines Magazine, National Geographic and others. Currently, I am on a two-year-long writing fellowship in Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon with the Institute for Current World Affairs.

I’ve written about corporations buying up farmland, entrepreneurs pursuing green reconstruction and a mythical mushroom aiding the mental health crisis in war-scarred Ukraine; Israel’s use of nature reserves for annexation in the West Bank; technological solutions to climate change in Kenya; the aftermath of environmental disaster in Kazakhstan; and the revival of an Islamic practice among herders in Jordan. In the U.S., I’ve investigated the Biden administration’s discriminatory policies toward asylum seekers; the disproportionate effects of wildfire smoke on Indigenous communities; and the role of chaplains in the New York City transit system during the Covid-19 pandemic.

I write and report at the intersection of the environment, human rights, and geopolitics. I’m particularly drawn to telling stories about solutions to global polycrisis (from climate change to war), in all their nuance and complexity, and particularly when they stem from grassroots initiatives.

I’ve previously been a fellow at the climate and environmental justice news magazine Grist, as well as a Fulbright fellow in Kyrgyzstan. My work has been supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation, Fund for Investigative Journalism, Society of Environmental Journalists, Overseas Press Club Foundation, Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and others.

I was born in California to parents who immigrated from Russia, and I speak Russian fluently, with working Spanish and Arabic. My happy place is in the mountains (some of my favorites are the Tian Shan range in Kyrgyzstan, Caucasus Mountains in Georgia and Chilean Patagonia).

Feel free to reach out at diana.kruzman[at]gmail.com with story ideas, book recommendations and other suggestions. Editors commissioning stories are especially welcome to get in touch!

I’m on Bluesky at @dkruzman.bsky.social.