Laura Gamboa is an Assistant Professor of Democracy and Global Affairs at the Keough School at the University of Notre Dame. Her research agenda is centered on questions related to the survival and quality of democratic systems. Her book “Resisting Backsliding: Opposition Strategies against the Erosion of Democracy” (CUP 2022), analyzes how opposition strategic choices and goals can decisively affect the ability of potential autocrats to erode democracy. Her current research focuses on the drivers behind these tactical choices as well as opposition strategies to counteract subnational democratic backsliding.

Laura’s work has been published in Comparative Politics, Democratization, Political Research Quarterly, Electoral Studies, Latin American Research Review, and Journal of Democracy among other journals. Her book received LASA’s 2022 Donna Lee Van Cott Award for best book in Political Institutions and an honorary mention from APSA’s 2023 Luebbert Book Award for best book in Comparative Politics.

Dr. Gamboa holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame (2016), an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA with Honors in History from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá).