Vaclav Masek Sánchez

2023-2024 USC Shoah Foundation Robert J. Katz Research Fellow in Genocide Studies

Born and raised in Guatemala, Vaclav Masek Sánchez is a third-year PhD student in Sociology at the University of Southern California. His research agenda relies on qualitative and archival methodologies and thematically encompasses the subfields of political sociology, social movements, critical development studies, memory studies, and settler colonialism. Before moving to Los Angeles, he earned his MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University, conducting interdisciplinary research on postwar Central American democracies. His forthcoming article in Revista Iberoamericana de Estudios del Desarrollo examines Maya Q’eqchi resistance against multinational extractivism in El Estor, Izabal. As a public sociologist, he writes a monthly opinion editorial column on contemporary Latin American affairs for the Spanish-language newspaper elPeriódico in Guatemala.