Laura Jaramillo

Hello, my name is Laura. I'm someone who gets completely absorbed by whatever captures my curiosity and tends to dive deep into topics, exploring them exhaustively. This has led me down fascinating paths, from studying Central Asian pre-Soviet art, 8th-13th century castle building in Portugal, and the emergence of ghost stories in post-war communities.

My academic journey has been equally diverse. I completed double majors in International Relations and Environmental Analysis at Pomona College in Southern California, studied architecture at Yonsei University in Seoul, and have worked across the marketing, policy and sustainable environment fields throughout the Indo-Pacific. Each experience has contributed to my understanding of how power operates across different contexts and cultures. What began as curiosity about how societies process trauma and reconstruct their realities gradually evolved into a focused interest in international history, particularly the mechanisms of surveillance and displacement that political actors use to reshape both physical landscapes and collective memory.

I'm particularly fascinated by how history itself is recorded during periods of high surveillance, when the very act of documentation becomes both resistance and risk. How do official narratives get constructed while alternative voices are silenced or driven underground? How do we piece together historical truth from fragmented or deliberately obscured records? These questions drive my research focus on surveillance systems, forced displacement, and the manipulation of historical memory. My undergraduate work reflected this focus: my International Relations thesis examined how the Pinochet regime altered physical space as an instrument of social and economic control, while my Environmental Analysis thesis on Hong Kong's vertical development explored similar questions about space and power in the urban and social context.

Despite my broad international interests and experiences, my regional specialization is Latin America, specifically South America during the Cold War period. At Columbia University and the London School of Economics, I'm excited to deepen my research in international history, particularly interested in how these historical processes continue to influence contemporary reconciliation efforts and memory work across the region and beyond.

Outside of academics, I love reading voraciously, mixed media art, bachata dancing, hiking, and curating music playlists. I'm looking forward to meeting fellow students with diverse interests and learning from the incredible resources both institutions offer.