Laura Gamboa

PhD., Assistant Professor, University of Utah

Laura is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah. Her research focuses on institutions, regime and regime change in Latin America. Her book manuscript studies opposition strategies against the erosion of democracy. Using the case of Alvaro Uribe in Colombia and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, it analyzes how opposition strategic choices and goals can decisively affect the ability of executives with hegemonic aspirations to erode democracy. An article summarizing an early version of the argument was published in Comparative Politics. She is also part of different collaborative projects on topics related to corruption, voting behavior, congressional politics, political parties and transitional justice. The first findings of some of these projects have been published in Political Research Quarterly, Electoral Politics, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties, and Terrorism and Political Violence. She received her PhD from the University of Notre Dame. She has a B.A. with Honors in History from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.