Tara Patricia Cookson

Tara Patricia Cookson is Assistant Professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Gender, Development, and Global Public Policy at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA) at the University of British Columbia. She is also an Associate Member of UBC's Geography Department. Her research employs ethnographic and quantitative methods to examine power dynamics in development policy, with particular focus on gender data, social protection systems, and care work.

Dr. Cookson's primary research interests include:

• Gender policy and equality in development contexts
• Social protection systems and their gendered impacts
• Care work and its relationship to economic development
• The politics of gender data and measurement
• Conditional cash transfer programs and implementation practices

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on gender-based violence prevention through social protection systems, the intersection of digital technology and gender equality, and the pandemic's disproportionate impact on women's lives. Her work consistently reveals how seemingly neutral policy tools can have gendered consequences, particularly for women in Latin America and other Global South contexts.

Dr. Cookson has received several prestigious awards for her scholarship:

• Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography (2019)
• Sarah A. Whaley Book Prize (2019)
• Global Development Studies Book Award Honorable Mention (2020)
• Alumni UBC Young Alumni Award (2020)
• Bill Gates Sr. Prize (2014)

She actively engages in policy-relevant scholarship, co-founding Ladysmith, a feminist research collective that connects academic work to practitioner problem-solving around gender data. Dr. Cookson regularly collaborates with international organizations including UN Women, the International Labour Organization, UNICEF, and Global Affairs Canada, bridging academic research with direct engagement in international policy processes.