Laura López-Pérez

Hello! I am a Doctor in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame. I am a researcher, professor, and practitioner. 

My research agenda addresses questions of collective action in high-risk contexts, political and criminal violence, violence against civilians, and civilian responses to victimization. In my doctoral dissertation, I examine why victims' relatives engage in high-risk and long-term mobilization. I incorporate a gender studies perspective into my research, acknowledging how victimization and responses to it affect women and girls differently. 

I use a mixed-methods approach, including qualitative fieldwork and specialized surveys. My methodological work has been published in Sociological Research and Methods and the Reference Collection in Social Science.

My work has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Political Science Association (APSA), the Institute for Scholarship in Liberal Arts (ISLA), and the Kellogg Institute. I have also been a 2022-2023 Center for Social Concerns Graduate Fellow and a 2024-2025 Wilsey Distinguished Graduate Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. I held the 2025-2026 Dissertation Year Fellowship by the Kellogg Institute.

I am a member of the Violence and Transitional Justice Lab and the Eliminating Violence Against Women Lab at the University of Notre Dame.

As a practitioner, my work has been dedicated to support families of disappeared in Mexico. 

Research interests 

Comparative Politics

Political and Criminal Violence

Social Movements and Collective Action

Gender Studies

Latin America

Multi-Method Research

Education

Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Notre Dame

M.A. in Political Science, University of Notre Dame

M.A. in Social Sciences, FLACSO Mexico

B.A. in Communication Studies, ITESO University