I am an Assistant Professor at The Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Previously, I was an Assistant Professor at Universidad del Rosario (Bogotá, Colombia) where I continue to be affiliated as an adjunct professor in the Department of Economics.
Before becoming a Professor, I was a Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and a Postdoctoral Researcher in The Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice and the Politics Department at Princeton University.
I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University, where I also completed an M.S. in Statistics. I completed M.A. and B.A. degrees in Economics from the University of Los Andes in my hometown Bogotá, Colombia.
My research interests are in comparative politics, public policy, and research methodologies. I investigate the political economy of inequalities in Latin America and its relationship with development and violence.
My work has been published or is forthcoming in the American Political Science Review, Sociological Methods and Research, The Journal of Politics in Latin America, and La Revista de Ciencia Política. Currently, I am writing a book entitled, "Escaping Inequality Traps: State Formation, Elites, and the Myth of Progress”, in which I identify the causes of economic inequality traps -i.e., high and persistent levels of economic inequality- in the region and explain why and how some countries manage to escape such traps and embark on paths of diminishing inequality.
These projects have been possible with funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), The University of Toronto's Munk School, the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame, The Mamdouha S. Bobst Center at Princeton University, The Buffett Institute, The Kellogg Dispute Resolution Research Center (DRRC), The Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the Political Science Department at Northwestern University.
You can contact me through email at laura.garciamontoya[at]utoronto[dot]ca or laura.garca[at]gmail[dot]com.
