Professional Background
Laura Gotkowitz is an associate professor of Latin American history at the University of Pittsburgh and an affiliated faculty member of the university’s Jewish studies program. She holds a PhD and a master’s degree in history from the University of Chicago, as well as a bachelor's degree in semiotics and history from Brown University.
Dr. Gotkowitz is the author of A Revolution for Our Rights: Indigenous Struggles for Land and Justice in Bolivia, 1880-1952 , which received the American Historical Association John E. Fagg Prize for 2008. A Spanish version of the book was published in Bolivia in 2011. She is also editor of Histories of Race and Racism: The Andes and Mesoamerica from Colonial Times to the Present. Dr. Gotkowitz is currently working on a book project on Jewish refugees, antifascism, and early Holocaust memory in Bolivia during the World War II era and its aftermath.
Fellowship Research
While at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a Sosland Foundation Fellow, Laura Gotkowitz will write and conduct research for her book project on Jewish refugees, antifascism, and early Holocaust memory in Bolivia. Dr. Gotkowitz plans to use sources from the Museum’s collections to flesh out the lives of little-known actors, with an emphasis on their diversity and the connections forged across social, political, and national differences. The project builds on her prior work on indigenous history and populist politics in Bolivia, while drawing on recent approaches to the Holocaust in Latin America.
Residency Period: January 1, 2027 – April 30, 2027