Margarita López Maya is an historian and emeritus professor-researcher with the Center for Development Studies at Universidad Central de Venezuela (CENDES-UCV). Currently she also serves as president of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). 

López Maya’s research delves into the contemporary socio-historical and sociopolitical processes of Latin America, particularly in Venezuela. Some of her prominent publications include: Democracia en Venezuela ¿Representativa, participativa o populista? [Democracy in Venezuela: representative, participative or populist?]  (Grupo Alfa, 2021), El ocaso del chavismo. Venezuela 2005-2015 [The Sunset of Chavism. Venezuela 2005-2015] (Grupo Alfa, 2016), Democracia Participativa en Venezuela. Orígenes, leyes, percepciones y desafíos [Participative Democracy in Venezuela. Origins, laws, perceptions and challenges] (Centro Gumilla, 2011), and Venezuela: Del Viernes Negro al Referendo Revocatorio [From Black Friday to the Presidential Recall] (Grupo Alfa, 2005).

Her work has garnered López Maya multiple fellowships: a former visiting fellow of the Kellogg Institute (spring 1999), she also has been a senior fellow at the Wilson Center and an Andrés Bello Fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. In spring 2020 she was the Bacardi Family Eminent Scholar of the Center of Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. She has taught courses at Columbia University and Princeton University, among others. 

López Maya was editor of Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales and served on the board of Organizan El Consejo Latinoamericano en Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO) in 2006-09. She holds a PhD from Universidad Central de Venezuela.