Laura Blume

Dr. Laura Blume is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Reno and a faculty affiliate of the Gender, Race, and Identity program. She earned her PhD from Boston University in 2020. Her research examines drug trafficking dynamics, organized crime, violence, illicit economies, and corruption in Central America and Mexico.

She is currently developing a comprehensive dataset tracking assassinations of public figures in Central America through her Guggenheim-funded 'Violence Against Public Figures' project. Her forthcoming book The Art of Trafficking (Oxford University Press, 2025) analyzes how political contexts shape narco-strategies and violence patterns.

Dr. Blume teaches courses on the Drug War, Border Politics, Latin American Politics, and Political Violence. Her ethnographic fieldwork contributes to understanding criminal governance structures and their societal impacts.

Awards:

• Harry Frank Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar Award (2022)