Laura Gamboa

Laura Gamboa is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah. Her research focuses on institutions, regime and regime change in Latin America. My 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.

Laura is also part of different collaborative project on corruption, voting behavior, congressional politics, political parties, transitional justice and polarization. The first findings of these projects have bene published in Political Research Quarterly, Electoral Politics, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties, Latin American Research Review and Political Violence.

Laura received has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame, a BA with Honors from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and an M.A. in Latin American Politics from the University of Texas at Austin.