Michaela de Toldi

Michaela de Toldi is an undergraduate student in Political Sciences with a Minor in Law and Society at Concordia University. Her academic interests surround international relations, genocides, conflicts entrenched in religious beliefs, and human rights.

During her expatriations in her childhood, namely in Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong, Michaela witnessed many human rights violations especially toward ethnic minorities exploited for their manpower and cheap labour. These constant human rights violations pushed her to realize that she wanted to work in a field that could have an impact, in which meaningful actions had to take place through partnerships and cooperation to challenge the status quo and bring about change.

She wishes to further her studies by doing a master’s degree at Science Po Paris in International Security. She will be joining MIGS as a Human Rights Officer for the next months and assist in planning, outreaching, organizing conferences and drafting external communications.

Katerina Sviderska

Katerina Sviderska is a master’s student in Political Science at Université de Montréal. She holds a bachelor’s in International Studies from the same university, as well as a certificate in Social Science from SciencesPo Paris. Her academic interests surround the issues of political violence, nationalism and propaganda. Under the supervision of Magdalena Dembinska, Katerina is currently writing her thesis, which analyses the factors motivating Russian soldiers to commit war atrocities against Ukrainian civilians. She also works for the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at University of Ottawa.

Jack Zimakas

Jack Zimakas is an undergraduate student in Honours Political Science at McGill University. An editor at the McGill-based Contemporary Review of Genocide and Political Violence, he strives to identify and better understand knowledge gaps in the study of international political economy. He has written articles as a student intern for Canadian Geographic, assisted the Arab Studies Institute's Knowledge Production Project (KPP) database for Middle East research, and peer-reviewed for multiple McGill-based IR journals. Jack looks to further assist in human rights advocacy where marginalized communities subsist in the face of state violence.