Laura Gamboa

Laura Gamboa is an assistant professor of democracy and global affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. She holds a PhD in political science from the University of Notre Dame (2016) and an MA in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

Gamboa’s 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 (Cambridge University Press, 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. Her work has been published in Comparative Politics, Democratization, Political Research Quarterly, Electoral Studies, Latin American Research Review, and Journal of Democracy among other journals.

Gamboa has received important fellowships and awards such as Notre Dame’s Eli J. And Helen Shaheen Award in Social Science, University of Utah’s 2024 CSBS Superior Research Award, and the Harvard University DRCLAS’ Santo Domingo visiting fellowship. Her book received the Latin American Studies Association’s 2022 Donna Lee Van Cott Award for best book in political institutions and an honorary mention for the American Political Science Association’s 2023 Luebbert Book Award for best book in comparative politics.