International Affairs ¦ Human Rights ¦ Technology ¦
About me: born in Germany, educated in Switzerland (B.A. International Affairs, University of St. Gallen) and currently living in Montréal, QC, Canada.
I work as a Project Manager at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University, and a researcher at its Digital Mass Atrocity Prevention Lab. My professional focus is on projects and research at the intersection of digital technology, international security, atrocity prevention, and human rights. More precisely, I focus on tools and procedures for human rights groups to counter surveillance and suppression, and I am motivated to bring policy and tech professionals closer together.
Through my work I helped conceptualize and organize the Global Diplomacy Lab in Montreal and several other conferences and training programs at Concordia University, conducted research at the MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Berkman Center, participated in several conflict and atrocity prevention hackathons, and advised two teams at a Stanford University Hacking for Diplomacy course.
Throughout university I was active as an event organizer, IT admin and alumni representative for the St. Gallen Symposium, a yearly conference which brings together students with +500 senior politicians, academics, and business executives.
Additionally, I worked for social organisations, such as a hospice in the United Kingdom and a kindergarten for children with disabilities in Stuttgart, Germany. I am also a human retweet bot (@nicolaipogadl) and I use Snapchat (reluctantly) to stay in touch with my four younger sisters back in Germany.
The best way to contact me is via email (pogadl.nicolai@gmail.com), Signal, or Twitter (@nicolaipogadl).