Summary
Laura Blume is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is also a faculty affiliate of the Gender, Race, and Identity (GRI) program. Laura earned her Ph.D. in political science from Boston University in 2020 and started at the University of Nevada, Reno that same year.
Laura's research and teaching interests include the war on drugs, violence, illicit economies, criminal governance, immigration and corruption. She also is increasingly exploring gender dynamics within illicit markets.
Laura has a forthcoming book, The Art of Trafficking: How Politics Shape Narco-Strategies and Violence in Central America, that uses comparative ethnography to examine the ways in which political contexts influence drug-traffickers’ operational strategies and trafficking-related violence in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The Art of Trafficking is being published with Oxford University Press and will be available in late 2025. Laura’s research has also been published in Comparative Political Studies, Political Geography, and World Development, as well as other outlets, and she frequently contributes to NACLA Report on the Americas.
In 2022, Laura won a Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Distinguished Scholar Award for her project, “Cataloguing Murder: Tracking Violence Against Public Figures in Central America.” This project is compiling a comprehensive dataset of all politicians, members of the media, judicial officials, activists and community leaders who have been assassinated in Central America. Please visit the Violence Against Public Figures (VAPF) project website for more information. Spanish-speaking students interested in working on VAPF are encouraged to apply for the PREP program and/or contact Laura.
Research interests
- Comparative politics
- Human security
- Criminal governance
- Illicit economies
- The War on Drugs
- Corruption
- Central America
- Mexico
- Immigration
- Political violence
- Ethnography
Courses taught
- PSC 403Q/603Q: The Drug War
- PSC 408F/608F: Border Politics
- PSC 781: Political Science as a Discipline (Research Design)
- PSC 211: Introduction to Comparative Politics
- PSC 407E/607E: Political Systems of Latin America
- PSC 407Q/607Q: Political Violence
- PSC 403Z: Special Topics in Public Policy & Public Administration
- PSC 405F: Problems of World Politics
Selected publications
- Blume, L. R. (2025). The Art of Trafficking: How Politics Shape Narco-Strategies and Violence in Central America. Oxford University Press.
- Blume, L. (2024). Honduras: A Narco-State Made in the United States. NACLA Report on the Americas.
- Blume, L., Hernández, V., Meza, D., & Weitzel, V. (2024). “Dying for Justice in Central America." NACLA Report on the Americas 56(3).
- Blume, L. (2022). Collusion, Cooptation, or Evasion: The Politics of Drug Trafficking Violence in Central America. Comparative Political Studies.
- Blume, L. R., Sauls, L. A., & Knight, C. A. (2022). Tracing Territorial-Illicit Relations: Pathways of Influence and Prospects for Governance. Political Geography, 97.
- Blume, L. (2021). Narco Robin Hoods: Community Support for Illicit Economies and Violence in Rural Central America. World Development 143: 105464.
Education
- Ph.D., Political Science, Boston University, 2020
- B.A., Political Science, Simmons College, 2013