Lucas entered the doctoral program in 2020 with a focus on Latin American and Caribbean History. After completing his B.A. in sociology and Spanish at Tufts University in 2014, he moved to Caracas, Venezuela for five years, working as a staff writer and editor at the independent news outlet Venezuelanalysis.com. Lucas’ dissertation research examines the construction of charismatic bonds between Hugo Chávez and Venezuela’s racialized popular classes between 1992 and 2002. His broader research interests include social revolutions, historical memory, populism, social movements, state formation, settler colonialism, capitalism and imperialism.