Here you can find some more information about me and my career. Here’s the most recent update (April 2023):
I currently work as a Research Manager at Rethink Priorities, a nonprofit that conducts critical research to inform policymakers and major foundations about how to most effectively help people and nonhuman animals. I’m part of the Existential Security team, where we help launch entrepreneurial (nonprofit) projects that mitigate existential risk such as pandemics, nuclear war, and from emergent technologies like AI.
I started at Rethink as an Associate Researcher in February 2022. Almost immediately afterwards, I cofounded Condor Camp, a project that gathers highly talented Brazilian university students to discuss the world's most pressing problems, with a focus on x-risks and AI safety. In October 2022, we expanded the team and I became its Manager. In May 2023, I’ll move into an advisory role.
Prior to all of that, I was a Predoctoral Research Fellow at the Legal Priorities Project in 2020/21. My main project was “The Rise of the Constitutional Protection of Future Generations”. Then, I applied to PhD positions in Political Science in US universities. Even though I got into a program with a relevant fellowship, I decided not to do a PhD and join Rethink instead.
In 2019/20, I studied an MSc in Criminal Justice Policy at the LSE as a Chevening Scholar. My dissertation investigated a criminal justice policy transfer hypothesis through interviews with policymakers and police officers in Pernambuco, Brazil, and received the Titmuss Prize for Best Dissertation.
In 2017, I completed a Bachelor of Laws at the Federal University of Pernambuco, the oldest Law school of Brazil. My graduation monograph compared the politics of judging drug–related crimes in the Czech and Brazilian judiciaries, using data collected in an ethnography I conducted in Pilsen between May and August 2017.
I'm a registered lawyer in Brazil (inactive) and worked as Chief of Staff of Justices of Appeal at the State Court of Justice of Pernambuco from 2016 to 2019. At the same time, I also was a volunteer Director at Além das Grades, a human rights group that advocates for criminal justice reform in Brazil.
I’m originally from Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. Outside work, I enjoy playing blitz chess (badly) throughout the day, and love to discover good music (some not-so-recent discoveries). I’ve played some beach volley and am trying to get into running.
🇬🇧 Renan Araujo is Research Manager at Rethink Priorities and Manager at Condor Camp. His work focuses on reducing existential risks. He holds an MSc in Criminal Justice Policy from the London School of Economics and a Law degree from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil.
🇧🇷 Renan Araujo é Gerente de Pesquisa na Rethink Priorities e Gerente na Condor Camp. Seu trabalho foca na redução de riscos existenciais. Possui mestrado em Política Criminal pela London School of Economics e é formado em Direito pela Universidade Federal de Pernambuco.